Lawrence Dallaglio has revealed he sought therapy after being consumed by ‘self-pity’ in the wake of a marriage collapse which left him bankrupt. 

The 2003 Rugby World Cup winner, 54, split from his model wife Alice last year after almost 20 years together, with news of their divorce being made public when they were pictured at Central Family Court in London. 

The couple had weathered a series of storms – with both facing allegations of affairs – and eventually sold their family home in leafy Richmond for £2.4milliion last May. 

But just a day after the home was sold, Dallaglio was declared bankrupt and ordered to hand over thousands of pounds following the collapse of his sports company. 

Now, speaking for the first time since the ordeal, the former England captain has admitted he retreated into ‘hibernation’ and ‘went into his shell’ as his marriage and finances unravelled. 

During an appearance on The High Performance podcast, Dallaglio said: ‘As a result of getting divorced, I was made bankrupt. I had some financial problems. 

‘And I probably was guilty of withdrawing back into my little shell and going a little bit into hibernation because naturally I’m quite a sort of extrovert, confident, bubbly individual, annoyingly confident sometimes.’ 

The former England captain said he initially found himself questioning why so much had gone wrong, admitting: ‘What I didn’t expect was so much of a period of such self-pity.

England rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio has opened up on the breakdown of his marriage for the first time in an appearance on The High Performance podcast

Dallaglio’s split from his model wife Alice was revealed last year when they were spotted at Central Family Court in London (they are pictured together in 2017)

Dallaglio and Alice are seen together after England’s historic triumph at the 2003 Rugby World Cup 

‘I’ve been a little bit guilty of being a bit sort of, isn’t life really unkind? And haven’t things worked out against me? Is it all me or is it just bad timing?’

Dallaglio and Alice married in 2005 after dating for almost a decade and share two daughters, Ella, 29, and Josie, 26, and son Enzo, 24.

The rugby star opted not to comment publicly when the couple’s divorce was revealed in February 2025. It was three months later in May that he was declared bankrupt following years of financial difficulties.  

His business, Lawrence Dallaglio Limited, had already entered voluntary liquidation in 2023 after facing a winding-up petition from HMRC, while he had previously avoided bankruptcy by reaching an agreement to repay debts which included a substantial unpaid tax bill.

Dallaglio was ordered to pay off an overdrawn directors loan of more than £366,500 before a further review of his debts revealed he owed a total of £423,570. 

The 54-year-old has now directly connected his eventual bankruptcy to the divorce and suggested that, in hindsight, there was another route he could have taken to preserve the marriage – by burying how he really felt.

Reflecting on what he could have done differently, Dallaglio said: ‘Much of it was my own doing. That’s the first thing you have to acknowledge. I could have done things a lot better.’

He added: ‘Might not have got divorced. I could have been one of those people that just parks all the real feelings and just carries on and lives a lie. I don’t know. Maybe I could have carried on doing that.’

The star said the combination of his divorce, huge financial pressure and the death of his father Vincenzo last year, aged 91, eventually forced him to confront how badly he was struggling.

He admitted he had initially been in ‘denial’, telling himself that the upheaval was not really affecting him.

Dallaglio (pictured in May 2022) was declared bankrupt just months after his and Alice’s split was made public 

Dallaglio (right) was once a giant of rugby and earned 85 caps playing for England between 1995 and 2007

‘I took a step back and realised you’re going through a lot, man,’ he said. ‘You’ve got divorced, you’ve had some massive financial pressures. Your dad’s dying and has died.

‘That’s a lot to deal with, maybe. And maybe I’d sort of turned a blind eye to it because that’s what I’ve always done.’

The former Wasps star said his instinct throughout his life had been to push problems aside and continue moving forward, but he finally realised he needed help last year. 

‘First of all is acceptance,’ he explained. ‘I’m not going to be able to solve this on my own. I need some help here to traverse back to a path that I think I need to get to.

‘And for someone who spent his whole life helping other people, it’s quite difficult to admit that you need some help yourself. And the hardest person to admit it to is yourself.’

Asked whether that meant he had sought therapy, Dallaglio replied: ‘Yeah, of course. But before I sought therapy, I sought every other way of blocking out.’

The official Insolvency Register currently records discharge from bankruptcy as suspended until August 31, 2027.

Lawrence, however, said that he believes he has emerged from the worst period with a changed outlook.

‘I’m certainly not broken. I felt like it,’ he said. ‘I’ve done a lot of self-pity and that doesn’t really get me very far.

‘I’ve now moved on, with the right help, to now feeling that I just need to – the only person that’s going to fix this is me, really,’ he said.

‘There’s lots of things I’d do differently, but if you lose your money in life, you’ve lost nothing. If you lose your health, you’ve lost something. But if you lose your word, you’ve lost everything.’

The Daily Mail revealed earlier this year that Dallaglio had been quietly piecing his life back together – and actually moved in to a rented accommodation with a mystery brunette in St Albans, Hertfordshire. 

The detached house – which is squeezed into a plot between two larger properties on each side – has four bedrooms and Dallaglio had been renting it for £2,750-a-month.  

Dallaglio and Alice (pictured in 2004) weathered a series of storms – with both facing allegations of affairs -and eventually sold their family home in leafy Richmond for £2.4milliion last May

The rugby star was believed to have been living with a mystery brunette in St Albans, Herfordshire, in February

A neighbour said Dallaglio had been living in the home since mid-2025. 

He said: ‘Lawrence moved in with his partner in May. It was a bit of a surprise when he first arrived because he’s this huge World Cup winning rugby legend.

‘But they’ve both really ingratiated themselves well with the neighbours. They’ve been round to a few houses for dinner.

‘Lawrence always looks relaxed and happy, he’s got a new puppy, a beautiful dog. I’ve seen him out on walks a few times.

‘I always have a chat with him when I see him, he’s a really nice down-to-earth bloke.’

Once a giant of his sport, Dallaglio earned 85 caps playing for England – including 22 as captain – and was a key member of the 2003 World Cup winning squad.

But despite his success in the game, it was off the field that Dallaglio famously dropped the ball on a number of occasions.

The couple’s marriage survived a succession of scandals dating back to the late Nineties when allegations of wild partying emerged, while Alice was at home looking after their young children.

In 1999, Dallaglio was stripped of the England captaincy after he allegedly confessed he had used prostitutes in Amsterdam, and was accused of using and dealing cocaine and ecstasy.

He told an undercover newspaper reporter he had been a teenage drug dealer and reportedly added: ‘I made big, big money from dealing in drugs.

‘Why do you think I know so much about drugs? I was surrounded by it. I used to drive from one end of London to the other with five or six ounces of it (cocaine).

‘That’s how I used to make money before I took up rugby.’

Dallaglio also allegedly boasted how he and two other players had taken ecstasy ‘and then a couple of wraps of coke’ to celebrate winning the 1997 Lions series in South Africa.

At the time, Dallaglio claimed he had been ‘naive and foolish’ but admitted he had experimented with drugs in his late teens.

He said he was now ‘completely against drugs’, adding: ‘I will always regret the effect that this has had on everyone.’

The incident led to him being fined £15,000 for bringing the game into disrepute on top of legal costs amounting to £10,000.

Later, Dallaglio was in more hot water after he allegedly slept with a married mother, leading to the woman divorcing her husband.

In 2005, the couple’s relationship hit a rocky patch and Alice reportedly had a fling with millionaire property developer Leon Butler.

The revelations came after Dallaglio revealed in March 2005 that he and Alice were on a ‘trial separation’ following claims that she was fed up with his rugby commitments taking him away from home for months at a time, and was running out of patience over their failure to marry.

Dallaglio played down their separation at the time, saying: ‘We want to make it work. As far as I’m concerned, we’re not splitting for good.’

He added: ‘Like any couple with young children, we are determined to make our relationship work.’

And they appeared to do just that after tying the knot later that year.

Dallaglio retired from rugby three years later and set up his own charity while working in TV and radio punditry and as an after-dinner speaker.

Already an MBE, he was also awarded an OBE in 2008 for his contribution to sport and charity.