Multi-code superstar Sonny Bill Williams has opened up on his infamous messy divorce from the Bulldogs, and how close friend and fellow sporting icon Anthony Mundine helped him sever ties and leave the NRL in 2008.
Williams tells all in his new autobiography, ‘You can’t stop the sun from shining‘, released today.
As reported earlier, Williams reveals how his decision to become Muslim made his relationship with many people at the NRL club – including a coach – awkward and uncomfortable, making the player angry.
He was also struggling to temper a new party lifestyle that involved drugs, alcohol and women, and eventually realised he had to cut the cord and take his career elsewhere.
“I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of here, make a complete break, start afresh somewhere else,” Williams writes.
“I was scared what would happen… people were starting to talk about the fact that I was keeping company with Muslims.”
Williams asked his agent, Khoder Nasser, to explore the option of joining a Super League rugby league club in either England or France.
Coincidentally, though, he then received a phone call from All Blacks great Tana Umaga, who asked Williams to move to France and play rugby union.
Williams accepted the offer and, long story short, it wasn’t long before the news leaked to media and then the Australian rugby league world.
Williams and Nasser tried to keep it a secret and Williams even threw his phone away, as he jumped on a plane and flew to London to hash out the details of his switch to the 15-man code.
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As soon as he left Sydney, though, the Bulldogs and NRL tried to hunt him down.
“Khoder called and told… that the Bulldogs administration were trying to subpoena me for breach of contract,” he writes.
“The NRL was also looking to take legal action. The media were waiting for me at Changi Airport (in Singapore) with a heap of questions.”
Williams made it to London but then was told his Samoan passport could not get him to France, so he was stuck in England.
“I spent two days hiding out in London while the passport problem was sorted. The media were trying to find me, the guy with the subpoena was supposedly looking for me,” he writes.
Williams spent several days “holed up in the attic of a house in Wimbledon, not daring to go out”.
Williams eventually got his visa and passport sorted and then flew to France, but again had to hide out in a town on the coast where he hoped the media, the NRL and the Bulldogs, could not track him down.
But they did.
“The (hotel) manager… told me to pack our things because the media were on to us.
“They put me in the car boot and covered me with blankets. Talk about living like a fugitive in a spy drama.”
Williams and Nasser eventually agreed to pay the Bulldogs a settlement of $750,000, as well as $200,000 legal fees plus almost that again for lawyers in France.
“I didn’t have that kind of money, so Anthony Mundine and some close friends paid it between them,” Williams reveals.
“I will never forget their generosity. Half a million each is big bucks to throw at a mate.”
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