Nathan Cleary has opened up on the factors preventing him becoming a father and his life as “Mary Fowler’s boyfriend”.
The NRL superstar is in London ahead of Australia’s Ashes series opener against England on Saturday (12.30am Sunday AEDT) at Wembley Stadium.
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The 27-year-old playmaker will partner Cameron Munster in the halves, with Reece Walsh, Isaah Yeo and Harry Grant lining up in a star-studded Kangaroos side for coach Kevin Walters.
While Cleary is a household name in Australia and among rugby league fans, his partner Fowler has a much bigger profile in football-mad parts of the world due to her exploits with the Matildas and Manchester City.
That profile only grew late last month when the 22-year-old became the first professional footballer to walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week.
In a chat with The Sydney Morning Herald, Cleary was told a journalist had asked if the Panthers star was “Mary’s boyfriend”.
“Someone said that to me today as well,” he said with a laugh.
“Like ‘oh, nice to meet you, just letting you know I love your girlfriend more’.
“And I was like ‘yeah, same’.”
Cleary and Fowler began dating back in 2023, with rumours spreading like wildfire before the couple confirmed the relationship publicly the following year.
They have since carried out a long-distance relationship, catching up whenever their schedules allow on either side of the world.
Fowler, who is recovering from a serious knee injury, spoke earlier this year of her desire to have a big family.
Cleary was asked if starting a family also crosses his mind.
“Yeah, it does,” he said. “Like, that’s probably my biggest goal in life, to one day be a father.
“But it’s just probably not meant to be at the moment and there are still things that have to fall into place.
“We’re both in the middle of our sporting journeys and enjoying that.
“So when the day comes, I would absolutely love that.
“But yeah, it’s just not right now.”
While the glamour couple is happy to post photos on social media when they do get to spend time together, they are yet to conduct any interviews as a duo.
Cleary said that was a very deliberate approach in an attempt to stop the publicity machine getting out of hand.
“The footy stuff you just know that’s all part of it, but the private life stuff, that was probably a bit harder to adjust to,” he said about dealing with the media.
“But Mary and I both spoke about it, that we didn’t want it to affect the way we live our lives.
“A lot of those things are out of your control, so it’s about controlling things that are in our control and not letting it drain our energy and just taking it in our stride.
“I think both of us are naturally quite private and introverted.
“We’re also doing our own different things in sport, and we don’t want it to become just a big deal, like us as a couple.”
Both Fowler and Cleary have been linked with moves to leagues in Australia or Europe respectively so they could spend more time together.
The footy star seems very open to a possible move in the future, either to rugby union, England’s Super League or even the expansion PNG side in the NRL.
But for now, he is committed to his beloved Panthers.
“Every three months an article comes out that I’m going to Super League or I’m going to union or whatever,” he said.
“But I’ve loved my time at Penrith obviously and it’s home to me.
“I’m quite open to things in the future, maybe having something different, but for the time being, yeah, I can’t really see it happening.
“I’ve said it a few times, like I’m open to things and the last thing I want when I get to the end of my career is to have regrets. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
