'Haunted me': Wayne Carey lifts the lid on infamous affair scandal

AFL legend Wayne Carey is set to open up on national television about his infamous affair with a teammate's wife.

Carey was caught cheating with Kelli Stevens in 2002 - the wife of North Melbourne Kangaroos teammate Anthony Stevens.

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Stevens was one of a number of players who caught his wife with Carey in a bathroom at a birthday party ahead of the 2002 season.

North Melbourne captain at the time, Carey sat out the 2002 season before leaving the club in disgrace to join the Adelaide Crows.

The affair happened just over a year after Carey married long-time partner Sally McMahon, with Stevens a groomsman at the wedding.

Carey now works as a commentator on Channel 7 and is set to appear in the next season of reality TV show SAS Australia.

In a preview video released on Friday, Carey can be seen being interrogated about the affair by the SAS instructors.

“I slept with a teammate’s wife. It’s haunted me for 20 years," Carey says.

“My integrity will always be questioned. I’m not trying to prove anything to the public - it’s to myself.

“People can change. They evolve. Hopefully this can help me.”

Brent Harvey lifts the lid on Wayne Carey scandal

Speaking about the scandal last year, North Melbourne champion Brent Harvey said it set the club back "four or five years".

Harvey was just starting his AFL career in 2002, but he knew things weren't right.

“It put our football club back four or five years,” Harvey told the TAB’s Inside 50 podcast with Crawf and Quinny.

“Not in terms of just Wayne leaving, but just everything. Anthony Stevens became the captain, he didn’t need to be captain with everything going on, there was a big divide with the group.

“My initial thought was it’s not true but once you find out something happened it’s like, ‘Wow’.

“We lost not only our best player but our captain, probably one of the greatest players to ever play our game. That’s hard to digest as a young kid that’s trying to win flags and do everything.

“At the time it was huge and you look back and that was a time you probably don’t want to go through again as a football club.”

Carey revealed in 2016 how he'd attempted to apologise to Stevens ahead of the 1996 premiership-winning side's 20-year reunion.

“A heartfelt apology. That’s where it started and that’s where it ended," he said.

“You’ll never forget (the affair) and it’s something that will live with me forever, as I’m sure it will a lot of people, which is still sad and I still live with that, but we can go to the event on Saturday and just have a smile on our faces and laugh and people can feel really good about being there.”

Carey mended his relationship with wife Sally after the affair, however they separated in 2006.

Stevens and wife Kelli also stayed together in the immediate aftermath before splitting in 2008.

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