It was love story which began at an Avicii concert in Sydney and spanned the globe over five years before it all came to a messy end last month.
Before the cracks began to appear, it looked as if hunky NRL star Sam Burgess and his wife Phoebe had it
Rugby league: The rise and fall of Sam and Phoebe Burgess' whirlwind relationship
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Sam and Phoebe hit it off straight away when they met at a concert. Photo / Instagram
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But it wasn't always this way.
The NRL's golden couple first met at an Avicii concert in Sydney back in January 2014.
Speaking of that fateful first meeting, Phoebe told a local English newspaper, the Bath Chronicle, the pair hit it off immediately.
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"Neither of us really frequent concerts but we ended up bumping into each other at an Avicii show in Sydney and chatted the whole time," she said.
"He put his number in my phone and we had our first date a few weeks later while I was in hospital with back problems."
There were eight months of secrecy before the world found out about the whirlwind romance, as the young couple made their public debut as a couple at the Dally M Awards that same year.
But once the secret was out, it was clear the relationship was no fling.
Phoebe uprooted her life and made a round-the-world trip to live in England's southwest with Sam after the superstar had scored a contract with a rugby union team in Bath, Somerset.
It was a change of footy code for Sam and a change of scenery for the couple, whose romance had clearly become serious.
They confirmed their engagement after a romantic trip to Greece in June 2015 and, after Sam re-signed with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, they married December that year at Phoebe's parents' home in the idyllic surroundings of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.
The fairytale wedding ushered in more than two years of a seemingly happy marriage and even up until May 2018 it seemed all was well with Sam and Phoebe.
It was then that Phoebe lauded her sports star husband's virtues in a tell-all interview with Stellar magazine — in which she described him quite simply "a good man".
"The moment he had a daughter, he had this amazing new appreciation for the other 50 per cent of the population," she said.
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"He doesn't skirt his responsibilities as a father. He never takes off and goes out with the boys instead of being a dad. He always makes the right choice — which I've never bullied him to do! He's just a good man. And it's sexy."
However, behind the smiley Instagram pictures and the announcement in June 2018 that the couple were expecting another child, there was a dark cloud.
In emails to the club, a 23-year-old woman claimed she felt violated in a social media interaction with Rabbitohs players, who she claimed exposed themselves to her in a video chat.
Sam was ultimately cleared of any involvement.
Speaking about the allegations for the first time in September, Burgess said the media attention had rocked his family.
"I'm not angry. What hurts me the most is seeing my wife upset about what's out there," he told reporters.
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"I'm completely happy to be going through the process. I've been open and honest with everything. Hopefully, it's resolved quickly.
"I just want to protect my family in this whole thing.
"I've got a wife. I've got a daughter. My wife's heavily pregnant. I just want them to be safe and happy. In my current situation at home there's just no chance of that."
He also paid tribute to his wife's strength at the time.
"With respect to my wife, my family, my wife's family, it's been a tough process to go through, the family together," he said.
"I'm fortunate that I've got a strong wife. I've got a wife who loves me. I've got great family. I've got great friends. Great support around me to help me through these allegations that have been made."
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Shortly after the scandal emerged, Phoebe shared an Instagram picture of herself playing on a picnic blanket beside her daughter Poppy — with Sam casting a shadow over them.
However, as the months passed by, Sam appeared in increasingly fewer pictures on her Insta feed and her final last post with him was on December 11, after the birth of their son Billy.
"William 'Billy' Mark Burgess. Born 9th December 2018, 4.22kg. Welcome to our world, little big man, our hearts are so full," she captioned the photo.
However, less than a month later, the Daily Mail reported that Sam was spotted yesterday carrying three packed bags out of the house he and Phoebe share in Maroubra in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs — without a wedding ring on his finger.
Phoebe's mother arrived at the house later that night and today her sister and her husband were also spotted at the Maroubra residence.
