Footy great Ben Brown launches into tear-jerking defence of his wife after she was bullied over her looks on TV
AFL great Ben Brown has defended his wife with a very emotional message of unconditional love after his wife was trolled over her looks when they were captured attending a match on a TV broadcast.
The former Kangaroos and Demons star’s wife Hester got the ball rolling in a TikTok video in which she predicted she would be targeted when they briefly appeared on Fox Sports’s coverage as they sat in the stands for Richmond’s clash with Melbourne on April 24.
‘Guys, I need to you know that this is my fresh hell,’ she said over the footage.
‘I see all the videos of the girls being like, “May this life find me!”‘ she continued, referring to the life of a footy WAG.
‘May this life never have found me.
‘I love my husband the most, but in that last clip, the camera person just happened to find us and then, oh look! There I am, in my freaking parenting plaits and my Hello Kitty T-shirt.
Former Kangaroos and Demons star Ben Brown has launched into an emotional defence of his wife Hester (pictured together) after she was bullied over her looks
Hester Brown took to TikTok to predict she’d be criticised after she and her husband were featured on Fox Sports’ broadcast of a recent AFL match (pictured, top)
‘I’m not sitting there, glamorous, ready for the camera.
‘And then I have to deal with the mortification of everyone ever messaging me to say, “Saw you on the TV, they can’t stop showing you on the TV”.
‘[I was] born to be Auskick, dorky mum, Pippi Longstockings. Forced to be a WAG.’
Sure enough, a troll left the comment ‘Imagine playing afl then settling for that’ on her clip, and she and Brown were having none of it.
They appeared together in another TikTok clip in which she asked the footy great for his thoughts.
‘People who know me well and know us well, know how absolutely gorgeous I find you,’ he said.
‘I love you for your brain … the thing I fell in love with is how much you care for other people, and how much you care for the world, and how much you’re willing to stand up for your values.
‘But absolutely right up there is, I just…we’ve known each other for what, 12 years? Still can’t get enough of you in every respect.
Ben Brown backed his wife (pictured together) to the hilt with a message of unconditional love
The premiership winner said he finds his wife of seven years ‘absolutely gorgeous’
‘I love everything about the way you look.’
Brown’s heartfelt message comes after other AFL WAGs revealed the effects of the shocking criticism they cop over their appearance.
Paris Tier, the girlfriend of GWS star Conor Stone, said online comments about her looks drove her to see a doctor about going on the weight-loss drug Ozempic.
‘I actually made a video and before I posted it, I was like, “Oh, I actually feel fat in this”,’ she said.
‘Within minutes of it being up, I got like five comments… people calling me fat and saying I don’t fit, I guess, the WAG criteria.’
Tiffany Wood, the wife of Bulldogs premiership captain Easton Wood, said she still battles body dysmorphia ‘because people told me I was too big to be a [footy star’s] partner’.
Wood recalled cruel comments from strangers online, like ‘She must have a great personality’ and ‘she’s not pretty enough to be with him’.
She revealed those expectations triggered a seasonal eating disorder as the trolling got worse near the finals, when partners attend awards nights.
Other AFL WAGs like Chloe Pink (pictured with husband Toby) have revealed the awful effects of the bullying they cop over the way they look
Tiffany Wood (pictured), the wife of Bulldogs premiership skipper Easton, revealed she developed an eating disorder due to the unhealthy expectations WAGs face
‘Come August every year, I would starve myself and drop at least, I don’t know, eight kilos,’ Wood said. ‘We called it “the shred”.
She avoided red carpets and award nights, fearing pointed articles in the media and harsh ‘hot or not’ reviews.
Chloe Pink, who married Kangaroos star Toby Pink last month, hit back at trolls who left shocking comments when she posted her wedding photos.
Pink, who was left crying for days afterwards, says her husband was as stunned as she was by the hurtful remarks about her appearance.
‘Toby’s first point was we need to teach our children better, we need to educate our sons and our daughters that we need to stop talking about people’s bodies,’ Pink said.
‘Talk about what their bodies can do, not what they look like.
‘Unfortunately, it was older men, it’s the truth, it sucks, and we just say that’s who it is, it’s just that generation.
‘That’s another opportunity for doing better, calling it out.’
Pink says the behaviour will only really be stamped out if men get involved in standing up to it.
‘I was having a conversation with my husband and he said, “It’s up to us men to call it out”. It’s not going to stop,’ she said.
‘We need more men, unfortunately, guys. Sorry, I need you to call it out because these women are sticking up for me, but it’s not the women who are making the comments.
‘It’s not going to stop if men aren’t calling it out.’
