The settlement brings a close to a highly publicised dispute that began in January 2025, when an image of Mr Sayers's penis was posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account while he was in Italy with his wife and daughters. Mr Sayers claimed his account was hacked and denied posting the photo.

Cate Sayers sued him for defamation a year later, alleging he had provided a statutory declaration to AFL investigators falsely stating that she was responsible for accessing the account and publishing the picture. In court documents, she argued that the AFL investigation was inadequate because she was never interviewed and Mr Sayers's phone was not forensically examined.

At the brief hearing on Friday, Mr Sayers's legal counsel, Sandip Mukerjea, read a statement from his client apologising “unreservedly” to his former wife and acknowledging the “hurt and harm” she had faced. Mr Sayers was not present.

In a statement outside court, Ms Sayers said she was pleased with the outcome and that she had started the legal proceedings to establish the truth.

“I acknowledge Luke's public apology to me today, including his clear statement that I was not responsible for posting an explicit image on his X account,” she said. “This brings to a close a painful and difficult chapter that began with extraordinary claims made about me that were accepted without challenge by powerful institutions and powerful people.”

She added that she had been overwhelmed by the support of many women whose reputations had been treated as “expendable”, and thanked them. She declined to disclose whether a financial settlement had been reached.

The settlement comes after Mr Sayers earlier failed in an application to have the case transferred to the Federal Circuit and Family Court, a move that would have prevented media reporting. An AFL inquiry had previously cleared Mr Sayers of breaching league rules, finding that access to his account “was compromised” on the available evidence.