Todd Carney has revealed what really happened when his obscene “bubbler” act ended his NRL career.

The Dally M medal winner was famously exiled from the league when the Cronulla Sharks tore up his contract as a result of a lewd “bubbling” photo, which showed him urinating into his own mouth, spreading across the internet in 2014.

The 37-year-old has now opened up on the extraordinary moves behind the scenes that followed after the photo began to circulate.

Speaking on The Bye Round podcast with James Graham, Carney has owned up to the fact he only has himself to blame — but still remains shocked his $3 million deal with the Sharks was terminated because of it.

Carney famously took legal action against the club claiming unfair dismissal, arguing the sudden axing did not allow him a chance to respond.

He was reported to be demanding the full $2.4 million balance left on his contract. The matter was settled out of court in 2017 with reports indicating he received a pay out in excess of six figures.

That hasn’t softened the blow.

“At the time I didn’t even know there was picture that had surfaced or that someone even took one,” he said.

“After I got in touch with him he said to me he’d sent it to his brother and his brother had lost his phone, which… however it got out, it is what it is. I done it.

“It didn’t come out for a week or two. Like when I first seen it I was like when even is that? And I only realised (when) because I had a split under my eye.”

Carney has revealed his teammates knew about his sacking before he did.

He said he only really knew the situation was serious when his manager David Riolo messaged him to say, What the f*** is this?”

“I was the first to say, what an idiot. And I thought to myself when I spoke to the club I didn’t obviously think I’d get sacked for it.”

Carney said the drama all began when former Sharks chief executive Steve Noyce came to his house.

He said at the time of the visit several teammates, including Wade Graham, were already at his house.

“The club obviously knew (about the photo) so Noycey came over to my house and Wado and the boys were there,” he said.

“And Wade was like — well not six again, play on, it’s sweet – but he said surely I’ll be playing this week. And then Noycey was like, ‘Don’t come to training tomorrow’. Wado was like, ‘What for? We exclude him from the group’.”

He said the first he heard about his termination came when Graham received a text message from the club’s media manager Rob Willis.

“That next day, I don’t think Wade ended up going to training, and Wado was sitting on my couch and his face went white and then he goes, ‘Did you just get sacked?’

“Wade got a text from the media man at the time saying, ‘No one comment to the media about the club’s decision today’.

“I rang Noycey straight away and (he) said I don’t know what you’re talking about.

“I said, ‘Well Wade’s sitting here and Wade said to me, ‘Like this is wrong. What’s going on?’

“I went in the next morning and they’d already made their decision.”

He said in the podcast he now gets pissed off thinking about it.

Carney tells Graham in the interview he is seven months sober and has transformed his life after attending a rehab facility earlier this year.

It’s why he now looks bake and shakes his head at how he sabotaged his own career.

Carney shot into the NRL spotlight as a 17-year-old, however, his career was derailed by a series of off-field incidents that saw him sacked from Canberra and released by the Sydney Roosters as a result of alcohol-related incidents.

Looking back now he says it is easy to see the connection between him winning the Dally M medal in 2010 — the fact that the 2010 season was the only time he abstained from alcohol for a full season.

“Now that I don’t drink, I look back on it and I’m pissed off at myself and how I handled it,” he said.

“Because I look back now and I go, well why didn’t the penny drop and go, ‘That’s it, you’ve got the rest of your life to have a beer’. But I didn’t see it that way. Now it pisses me off a little bit.

“I still talk about the bubbler and those sorts of things, but I don’t laugh too much about it.

“Now looking back at it, it’s stupid. That’s all it was. It eats at me now that I don’t drink, the s*** that I let go of.”

Carney now lives on Queensland’s Gold Coast where he runs a concreting business while also working with Men of Business, a local organisation that helps and mentors at-risk teenagers.

He has been through a private hell and back to reach this place of having a healthy mind and body.

He now sees a counsellor every week following his 30-days spent in rehab.

He says he was prepared to stay in the facility for three months if it was necessary.

Carney had spent time in rehab facilities during his career and had received professional help — but nothing seemed to help.

It worked this time around because it is the first time he has done it for himself.

Carney opens up on relationship break down

The former NRL star’s ugly drinking problem ruined his football career and he’s now admitted it almost ruined his life in a tell-all interview on James Graham’s podcast.

Carney admits he has a long way to go despite his enormous lifestyle changes that have followed a 30-day stint in a rehabilitation centre earlier this year.

The 37-year-old’s life in recent years appeared to have stabilised following his long-term romance with former reality TV star Suzie Bradley — but the footballer has revealed there was another dark side to their relationship.

Speaking on The Bye Round with former Bulldogs cult hero Graham, Carney has revealed his moment at rock bottom — and the snap decision to get professional help for his issues with alcohol.

Carney says in the interview — looking back at the person he used to be — he can’t believe Bradley stayed with him for as long as she did.

The former Married At First Sight contestant in May confirmed she and Carney were back together one year after it was confirmed they had separated.

The on-and-off couple have been in a relationship since 2019, with the pair getting engaged in December 2020 before welcoming their first child, a son, in March, 2021.

Bradley is also mum to a five-year-old daughter named Baby from a previous relationship.

Bradley shared she was heartbroken after their split last year.

Carney has now opened up on the deeply personal matter, confirming Bradley walked out on him last year because of his ongoing problems.

“I’d drink on weekends and then I’d wake up Sunday and I’d be like, ‘I’m not going to do it again’. I’m feeling s***,” he said.

“That happened more often than not and then I said to myself it’s time to start considering — and me and Susie were starting to talk about getting back together and things like that — and it just wasn’t happening because I was still drinking and she couldn’t be around it.”

He went on to say: “She started to question it. Not dealing with it (his behaviour) and I had my little boy and we split up for seven months and then that was a big kick in the guts.”

He said he described himself as a “50-50” dad, who was only a father a few days of the week.

He said even when his son was with him, he would feel like “s***” because of alcohol consumed on the days when their child didn’t stay with him.

He says bluntly that no one deserved to be treated the way he treated Bradley during that period of their life.

That realisation came this year when he was asked during his stay in rehab how he would react if his daughter had grown up and was dating the type of person he was at the time.

“I’d wring his neck. I’d see red,” he said.

He said he acted “childish” towards Bradley at times and would refuse to confirm when he would come home after being out socially.

“No wonder she left,” he said.

“No wonder she didn’t put up with it. No one should. But that’s what I thought was normal. It’s crazy to think that.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ70qmmq6xfo7%2Bte8Wamp5lp5q7tXnWoaCtnV2pvKWwjJyYq6aVrnqlu8%2BsZJuhl2LBuLXSrWSorpWnerCu0pycp51dl8KjrsueqWaZk6l8r7HWrGSsrJ%2BnxnCFxHJoampnZ4angpNrmmtrZGeup36Tmpuaa2dmr3h8kw%3D%3D