{"id":138114,"date":"2021-10-03T05:26:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T05:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138114"},"modified":"2021-10-03T08:57:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T08:57:17","slug":"sbws-book-bombshell-i-could-have-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=138114","title":{"rendered":"SBW's book bombshell: 'I could have died'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-code champion Sonny Bill Williams<\/a> has opened up on the party lifestyle he had previously kept largely a secret in his new book, Sonny Bill Williams: You can't stop the sun from shining<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The autobiography is out on October 13, but the Sydney Morning Herald printed small excerpts<\/a> in which the New Zealand great details one incident in particular when a doctor got angry over how many drugs were in Williams' blood.<\/p>\n

"One time I went on a bender that lasted from Friday night to Monday morning," Williams writes.<\/p>\n

"The only reason I came home is I knew I had a surgery appointment at 11am.<\/p>\n

LIVE GRAND FINAL UPDATES:<\/strong> SBW explains what sets Penrith apart<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fittler<\/p>\n

"I don't remember anything about the operations except waking up having my girlfriend crying next to the bed and the doc really gave it to me, telling me I had so many drugs in my system I could have died."<\/p>\n

Williams says he turned to a life of partying in an effort to hide a shy insecure young man.<\/p>\n

He says he struggled to adjust to life as a public figure when he shot to fame in the NRL.<\/p>\n

"How is a shy boy supposed to cope with that? That's not in the script either. And I had no one to guide me," he says.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Everything you need to know about 2021 NRL grand final<\/a><\/p>\n

"So I found my own ways to deal with it. By having a smoke before I went out or a couple of sleeping tablets to relax me. I was trying to take the fear away."<\/p>\n

Williams won the NRL premiership with Canterbury in 2004, but four years later left the Bulldogs in a move that sent shockwaves through rugby league.<\/p>\n

Williams has now revealed the deep anger he had towards the Belmore club that had festered for a long time before he quit.<\/p>\n

\"Sterlo<\/p>\n

He says the club struggled to accept his decision to become a Muslim.<\/p>\n

"I turned up to training one day and the coach said to me, 'you aren't turning Muslim are you?'," Williams writes.<\/p>\n

"I tried to laugh it off, but then the comments were made about my friends.<\/p>\n

"No one had paid attention to my private life before then. No one cared.<\/p>\n

"When I was drinking or partying hard, as long as I was always doing what they needed on the field, and it didn't make the press. And even then, it was all about damage control, not about my wellbeing.<\/p>\n

"Suddenly, my private life was concerning because of my religion."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-code champion Sonny Bill Williams has opened up on the party lifestyle he had previously kept largely a secret in his new book, Sonny Bill […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138116,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138114\/revisions\/138116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}