English prop Joe Marler’s wife has called him “a moron” for his verbal outburst aimed at Kiwi rugby player Jake Heenan.
Harlequins player Marler has been handed a six-week ban and was fined $38,000 for his comments which referenced Heenan’s mother during their loss to Bristol last week.
Unknown to Marler, Heenan’s mother was in hospital with cancer, and an altercation erupted.
Marler has a history of suspensions and taunting players. Fed up with his behaviour, his wife Daisy blasted him for his actions with Marler using the latest episode of his podcast ‘The Joe Marler Show’ to share her disappointment.
“She turned round to me after, and she was like, ‘You’re an idiot, aren’t you? You’re just a moron',” Marler said.
“I went, ‘what do you mean? I thought you are meant to defend me.’ And she went, ‘why am I defending you? That’s not even a funny attempt. Why don’t you just stop doing it? Or, if you feel the need to do it, just don’t bring family members into it. You never know what is going on in people’s lives and just because it doesn’t affect you on the pitch doesn’t mean it’s not going to affect other people’.”
Marler also apologised to Heenan on the podcast and pledged to be better.
“I’m really sorry to Jake Heenan and his family, the guy I insulted or tried to insult, and also to my teammates and to the club because they must really now be at a point where they are like, ‘Here we go again’,” Marler said.
“I have been back and forth about the whole situation of, ‘oh, it goes on all the time; you should hear some of the stuff.’ All this lot. ‘What’s the big thing, and would there be a hoo-ha if his mum wasn’t in hospital?’ Probably not.
“But, actually, we always have a choice, don’t we? We have a choice whether you can actually use this for good, regardless of what the RFU have done in terms of banning or setting an example.
“It’s about what can I do to make this be useful and good for me moving forward. And I guess it is a realisation that I haven’t got long actually being able to play the game left, so I want to use whatever time I have left at the club to actually embrace it and play the game.”
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