Simone Callahan has broken her silence on the devastating moment she realised cricket legend Shane Warne had died.
Speaking with raw honesty on son Jackson’s podcast Warnes Way, Simone recalled the surreal horror of that night in March 2022 when Warne died suddenly of a heart attack in Thailand, aged 52.
Simone, who lives an hour outside Melbourne in the coastal town of Somers, had been on her way home to collect daughter Summer when the messages started coming through.
‘It didn’t feel real,’ she told Jackson.
‘We were just having a normal Friday night. Then that just unfolded the way it did and having to go back to Melbourne and get Summer and getting a call on the way back.
‘Saying are you nearly home, when I got that message I thought this isn’t good if they’re asking me if I’m nearly home with Summer because they wanted us all together for the next phone call. Our lives were changed forever in that moment.’
Simone Callahan has broken her silence on the devastating moment she realised cricket legend Shane Warne was dead
Speaking with raw honesty on son Jackson’s podcast Warnes Way, Simone recalled the surreal horror of that night in March 2022 when Warne died suddenly of a heart attack in Thailand, aged 52
In the chaotic weeks that followed, as the world mourned one of Australia’s greatest sporting icons, Simone watched their children – Brooke, Jackson and Summer – thrown into the eye of the storm, tasked with organising a funeral and memorial while barely able to manage their own grief.
Much of that period, she admits, remains a blur.
‘I had so much going on because I was worried about you guys because you were being pulled left, right and centre to organise the funeral, the memorial,’ she told Jackson.
‘There was so much going on… I always felt a sense of guilt that you were having to deal with that.
‘You guys were young, it was out of my control. It was hard for me to see all that.
‘I was so proud of the way you guys handled yourselves and I knew you would, but it was very hard for me to watch and see you go through all that.
‘It was really heavy and you guys had really heavy hearts and you didn’t have a moment to really grieve at all during that time.’
For Jackson, it was the thought of making his father proud that kept him upright during the darkest days. But even now four years on, the tears haven’t fully come.
Shane Warne, known as the king of spin tragically died of a heart attack at 52 on March 4, 2022, while staying at a luxury villa on the Thailand holiday island of Koh Samui. Pictured: A throwback snap with Shane Warne and his children, Jackson, Brooke and Summer
Simone pictured with Brooke and Jackson
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‘I felt a sense of duty that I know dad would want me to do this,’ he said.
‘You’re not a big crier, dad’s not a really big crier. I haven’t had that big cry yet… some people say it comes years after or in two or three years or whatever it is.’
Warne shared his three children with his ex-wife Simone Callahan: Brooke, Jackson, and Summer.
Warne is considered one of the finest cricketers in history after claiming 708 Test wickets at 25.41 in 145 matches between 1992 and 2007.
The megastar cricketer turned pundit and businessman was found unconscious in a villa in the resort of Koh Samui.
