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The only contact NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett has with his grandchildren is through birthday cards after his affair and marriage breakdown tore his once close-knit family apart, a new book has revealed .
The seven-time premiership coach sent shockwaves through the code in 2016 when he confirmed reports that his 42-year marriage to wife Trish had ended.
A few days later, the Daily Mail Australia revealed the identity of Bennett’s new lover: Dale Cage, mother of three children, 22 years his junior, whom he had met three years earlier while he was Newcastle coach Knights.
The new relationship had devastating consequences for Bennett’s relationship with his daughter Beth, who had been married to Queensland league legend Ben Ikin for 20 years.
Beth and Ikin sided with her mother Trish, who is the primary caregiver for the two disabled adult children she had with Bennett.
Beth’s estrangement from her father saw the private family affair burst into the public eye.
Wayne Bennett’s relationship with Dale Cage saw him separated from his daughter
Bennett’s new biography, The Wolf You Feed, by journalist Andrew Webster, sheds new light on his relationship with Cage and his estrangement from Beth, who was interviewed for the book.
In late 2018, Bennett signed up to coach the South Sydney Rabbitohs after being sacked by the Brisbane Broncos and returned to Sydney with Cage.
He was still suffering from the consequences of the breakdown of his marriage and his estrangement from his family two years earlier, particularly his four grandchildren.
Rabbitohs football manager Mark Ellison shared an office with Bennett during his time at the club.
Ellison reminded Webster of the day he saw Bennett writing on a birthday card at practice.
“Who is the card for Coach? » asked Ellison.
Bennett replied, “It’s for one of my grandchildren.”
“My daughter doesn’t talk to me anymore, but I still send them a card so they know I care about them. »
It appears tensions have since eased with his daughter as Bennett recently attended his eldest grandson’s 21st birthday.
The book recalls that his grandchildren always called him “Coach” rather than “Grandpa” or “Poppy”, a term Bennett insisted on.
Webster writes in the book that Beth still seems “hurt” by her father’s decision to leave her mother for another woman.
Rabbitoh football manager Mark Ellison (pictured in suit, far right) recalled how Bennett used to send birthday cards to his grandchildren to let them know he still cared about them.
NRL supercoach remains estranged from son-in-law Ben Ikin, married to Bennett’s daughter Beth
In 2020, during the pandemic, Bennett’s private family feud escalated in the public eye.
His son-in-law, former player turned commentator Ikin, criticized him on Fox Sports for breaching the NRL’s strict COVID-19 biosecurity protocols.
Bennett was fined $20,000 after seeing him and Cage dine at Sydney’s upscale Italian restaurant, Grappa.
Several days later, Cage ignited a media storm after hitting Ikin in a scathing social media post.
“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones #justsaying. The truth will hurt some people #stay tuned #benikin’, she posted on Instagram.
“The self-righteous cry judgment against others to hide the skeletons dancing in their own closets,” she added, before moving her account to private.
Ms Cage attempted to downplay her Instagram post when contacted by Daily Mail Australia at the time.
“There is no situation,” Ms. Cage said. “I have no comment to make.”
She refused to reveal whether she regretted the social media spats that were at the heart of their strained relationship.
Bennett’s daughter, Beth (in pink), was the second child of Wayne Bennett’s three children with his wife Trish.
NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett (right) has become estranged from his once close-knit family following his relationship with Dale Cage
The Wolf You Feed: Wayne Bennett – The Man, The Myth, The Mayhem by Andrew Webster is published by Macmillan Australia
Tight-lipped Ikin refused to add fuel to the fire when contacted. It is unclear what motivated Cage’s attack on Ikin.
The feud reignited last December when media reports claimed Bennett had reconciled with his estranged son-in-law, Ikin, earlier in the year.
Cage shared a clip of the article on Instagram and called it “garbage.”
“Wayne confirmed this morning that it wasn’t true!” she posted on Sunday. “He still doesn’t like her,” she added with a laughing emoji.
While Beth ultimately agreed to be interviewed for her father’s biography, Ikin declined, according to Webster.
Although Bennett is unsure whether he and Ikin will make amends, he describes Beth as being like “talking to myself.”
“Beth, it’s me,” Bennett said.
“I call him and it’s like talking to myself.”
Beth believes her father could not have achieved what he did without the support of her mother, whom she called her “North Star.”
“Maybe I can convince you to write a chapter called The X Factor, cross out the X and put a T (for Trish),” she suggested.
“Without her, even if he was single, he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did.
“We punished him. When the pendulum would change and everyone loved him, he would come home and get dragged by us.
“(Mom) took care of the house, made sure everything was going well. He could concentrate fully knowing he had a nice home to come back to, knowing he could take off without missing a beat because Mom was making sure everything went smoothly.
Bennett and Trish are still not legally divorced and still talk most of the time, mainly about the care needs of their wheelchair-bound son Justin, who has Dravet syndrome, a rare and lifelong form of epilepsy.
“She’s his North Star,” Beth said.
“She still is. Without her, none of this happens.
When asked if her mother ever spoke ill of Bennett, Beth replied, “Never.”
A notoriously private person, Bennett broke down while telling Webster about Trish.
“She’s a special person,” Bennett says of Trish.
The Wolf You Feed: Wayne Bennett – The Man, The Myth, The Mayhem by Andrew Webster is published by Macmillan Australia and will be released on September 12. Recommended price: $37.