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Updated July 15, 2026 — 3:35pm,first published 3:16pm
Warring high-profile couple Luke and Cate Sayers have formally gone their separate ways after their divorce was finalised.
The process to dissolve their marriage had been unfolding in parallel to Cate’s defamation action against her ex-husband, who is the former chairman of the Carlton Football Club.
A source close to the Sayers family, who was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, confirmed to this masthead that the estranged couple’s marriage had now been legally dissolved.
The source said Cate was in Italy, where she has business interests.
The couple, who were once red carpet regulars at social events, have four adult daughters. Two of the children have publicly vowed to support their father as his legal battle with their mother unfolds.
The Sayers have a daughter with Down syndrome, and in 2009 Cate founded the Inclusion Foundation, of which Luke was executive chairman. The charity provided dance classes for students with Down syndrome, and in recent years branched into providing disability employment services.
According to the charities regulator, Luke remains a director of the foundation, but stepped down as chair in mid-2023 amid an unfolding scandal at his former employer, PwC, involving tax leaks. Luke had left the accounting giant by that time, but had been its chief executive during the period relevant to the tax affair.
Amid the Sayers’ marital separation, the foundation has become a shadow of its former self. It now has no paid employees and is no longer fundraising.
An unwinding of the couple’s financial affairs has also been unfolding. In December 2024, the Sayers sold their long-held family home, netting more than $16.5 million for the historic Hawthorn mansion. Around the same time, Luke bought a luxury apartment in East Melbourne for $10.2 million in a deal that was settled in April last year, three months after the lewd photo scandal erupted.
Cate retains ownership of a holiday property at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, and another home in Hawthorn that was bought 25 years ago.
The defamation action centres on publication in January 2025 of a picture of the businessman’s penis on social media while the couple were on a family holiday in Italy.
The former chief executive of PwC said at the time that his phone had been hacked. In his explanation to the AFl, he said the picture had been taken for medical purposes, and that he suspected Cate might have posted the shot to his social media account.
As part of the defamation action, the AFL, Carlton, Luke’s long-time personal assistant Julie Trainor and AFL executive and former adviser to Luke Sharon McCrohan were all required to produce documents and materials to the court related to the explicit photo scandal.
Monday marked the deadline for Luke to file material to the court supporting any claim for privilege over documents filed by the AFL, Carlton, Trainor and McCrohan.
A statutory declaration sworn by Luke was key to him being cleared of wrongdoing by the AFL for the photo’s publication on social media. A female executive at one of Carlton’s sponsors was also tagged in the post.
The document claimed Cate’s denials about posting the explicit picture could not be trusted, that she suffered from mental illness, and at times refused to take her medication. It also contained an express request that neither the police nor the AFL interview Cate.
That statutory declaration now forms the basis of Cate’s defamation case.
The AFL has also been given the opportunity to keep key parts of material relating to the league’s January 2025 investigation into the businessman’s explicit picture scandal secret.
In court filings, Cate has already questioned the AFL’s investigation and Carlton’s internal processes around the scandal, claiming they were “not conducted adequately or honestly”.
“The AFL … worked closely with Carlton and Luke directly to provide an outcome that publicly exonerated Luke,” she has told the court.
Luke has in recent months been photographed walking hand-in-hand with marketing manager Alexandra Elms, while a source close to the Sayers family but not authorised to speak publicly confirmed that Cate also had a new romantic partner.
