AFL 2022: Brendan Fevola on not being daughter Mia's biological father

Retired star Brendan Fevola addressed some personal matters on his  radio show on Friday alongside his long-term partner Alex Fevola. 

Alex, 44, appeared as a guest on the program to discuss her new memoir Silver Linings, and the conversation soon turned to their family.

The high-profile couple – who married in 2005, divorced in 2014 and became engaged again in 2016 – spoke about the fact Brendan, 41, is not the biological father of their eldest daughter Mia.

Alex acknowledged there had been ‘a lot of misunderstanding and questions about where Mia’s biological father was, because he was never in the picture’.

She said it was also something she wished to address, but she ‘wanted to do it when the children were older, and when Mia understood the full story herself’.

‘Some people don’t realise that Mia’s not my child. You know, I’m not her real dad…’ interrupted Brendan. 

‘I’m her real dad now, but I’m not her biological father, who passed away when Mia was really young.’

The former Carlton and Brisbane Lions star said he first met Mia, now 22, when she was about three years old, describing her as the ‘cutest thing ever’.  

‘I fell in love with Mia before I did with Alex, so we probably wouldn’t be together and all those kids probably wouldn’t be there if I didn’t meet Mia!’ he added.

Brendan admitted it was ‘tough’ entering a relationship with a single mum, and recounted the day Mia called him dad ‘out of the blue’.    

‘It was really strange, https://pasound-system.com/ actually. It was like she was longing to have a dad, so she never really knew any different,’ added Alex.

‘Obviously, it was just her and I, and then when Brendan came into our lives, she took to him immediately. She just adored him, and it was really weird.’

In addition to Mia, Brendan and Alex are also parents to daughters Leni, 15, Lulu, 11, and Tobi, three.

Elsewhere in the interview, Brendan took responsibility for the couple’s ‘rocky’ times.

‘Obviously as a family, we’re going really well now, but there were times in our past where things were rocky, and we weren’t together, and I’d lost all our money, and you were stuck with the kids…’ he said, referring to his infidelity and gambling problem.

‘I wasn’t working, I’d been sacked, and you were literally looking after me and paying for things that I needed, too.’

Alex admitted that while it had been ‘hard’ and ‘a juggle’, she’d ‘had a lot of help’ from both of their mothers.

‘We had houses and we had to sell them, and then you moved in with your mum, because we couldn’t afford a house,’ Brendan continued.

Alex added: ‘We had to sell everything really quickly. We ended up with pretty much nothing left… It was a very, very difficult time. It was tough.’ 

Brendan and Alex were married in 2005, before divorcing in 2014 and getting engaged once again two years later.

They previously split in 2006 after the footy star’s brief and controversial affair with bikini model Lara Bingle, who is now married to actor Sam Worthington.    

Brendan also made headlines for several controversial incidents, including being kicked out of Crown Melbourne with a black eye in March 2004.

The powerful full-forward was also sent home from an AFL tour of Ireland after assaulting a barman at a Galway nightclub in 2006.  

He urinated outside a nightclub in 2008 that resulted in him being fined $10,000 by Carlton and stood down from leadership at his club.

In 2009, he dressed in a nightie and brandished a sex toy during Carlton’s Mad Monday celebrations, with video footage of the incident posted on YouTube. 

The same year, he was banned from the Grand Final Footy Show after behaving inappropriately at the Brownlow Medal ceremony, and left Carlton shortly thereafter.

Over the years, the goalkicker was also plagued by a gambling addiction that nearly drove him to suicide in late 2010 after he lost almost a million dollars.

In 2011, Brendan ended up going to rehab for 60 days for gambling, drinking and depression, and was temporarily banned from playing AFL.

‘Being sacked was probably the best thing that ever happened to me though, because then I got out of “the bubble”, and I was fine. It was really weird,’ he later said.

Brendan and his family appear to be in a much better place now though, and were spotted embarking on a holiday on Friday.

Shortly after their emotional radio interview, Brendan and Alex made their way to Melbourne Airport with their four daughters.

They were all seen outside the departures gate with their luggage, as Mia snapped a series of selfies on her iPhone.

The family made their way into the busy terminal, with Mia clutching her sister Tobi’s hand as they walked.