The ex-girlfriend of former NRL star Jed Cartwright has revealed how he dumped her for another woman after promising to fly her to the UK to have a baby together.
Laura Hawthorne, 30, was preparing for a new life in England, where her partner of six years had been signed as a star recruit for Super League side Hull.
The mother-of-two, who had been with Cartwright for six years and considered him a stepfather to her son and daughter, was preparing to fly over to visit and then move there permanently early next year.
But those dreams were shattered when he suddenly broke up with her – and then uploaded a picture of his new love to Instagram.
Ms Hawthorne has since posted a video on TikTok about the relationship, which is entitled: ‘When you stick by an NRL player’s side through all the ups and downs, and he leaves you and your two kids for another woman.’
Ms Hawthorne said Cartwright, who left Australia in June to play for Hull, had in mid-July booked her a flight to visit England this month.
That was ‘two weeks before he broke up with me’, she claims in the video, adding: ‘He just all of a sudden went cold.’
In the video, Ms Hawthorne describes how, hurt at the abrupt lack of contact, she began searching through his social media and that her ‘women’s intuition’ drew her to a particular female among his Instagram followers, called Sophie.
Laura Hawthorne supported NRL star Jed Cartwright through his ups and downs and then when he transferred to the UK, and promised they would have babies together, he then cruelly dumped her
After six years with Jed Cartwright, Laura Hawthorne was promised ‘babies, family life, everything I’d always wanted’ but the league player blocked her and turned up on social media with his new girlfriend
‘A month after he’s broken up with me he’s posting with this girl on social media,’ she said.
‘You don’t go from one extreme of saying you want kids with someone and planning your whole life to “I have to break up with you” and blocking me, removing all my friends and family off Instagram,
‘I messaged this girl saying, “I just need closure, just let me know if something’s happened”.
‘She doesn’t reply … disgusting.’
Ms Hawthorne said Cartwright didn’t even say goodbye to her two children on one of his last phone calls.
He had called, drunk after a night out, when she was doing the school run, and then made his final call in late July to say their long-term relationship was over.
Ms Hawthorne said that when she first met Cartwright in 2018, he had not been playing first grade, and she had been initially wary of dating a football player.
‘He’d never debuted and he was at the end of his contract and you thought, okay, I might give him a chance,’ she says in the video, at times shaking, and struggling to keep it together.
‘He might not be a typical footy player, so you gave him a chance. You’re a single mother to two kids and, yeah, you were together for six years.’
In 2019, Cartwright was selected to play his NRL debut for the Penrith Panthers, and tearfully broke the news to his father, Panthers legend John Cartwright, who played 184 NRL games for the team between 1985 and 1996.
Former Penrith Panthers second rower Jed Cartwright had planned to fly his girlfriend of six years to the UK, but two weeks later he’d turned ‘cold’ on her and ended up with his knew girlfriend Sophie (above)
Cartwright’s NRL career was something of a rocky ride. ‘Essentially he was in and out of first grade, lots of injuries,’ Ms Hawthorne said, but she supported him and his team ‘through everything.’
Ms Hawthorne continued: ‘Then he signs over into the Super League and he leaves at the end of June.
‘He’s telling his family he’s signing to Hull FC. He’s on Facetime saying “yeah me and Laura are going to have a baby over there”.
‘He was telling me I didn’t have to work, and I was like I want to work, and that we were going to go to Italy.
‘He booked me a ticket to visit in September, and I was going to move over there in February,’ she said, getting teary.
Jed Cartwright called his partner of six years to tell her their relationship was over. Weeks later he appeared on social media with Sophie, of Hull, who appears to be his new girlfriend
Jed Cartwright (above with Laura Hawthorne) had talked about babies and marriage with her, but just weeks after saying he was booking her flight to the UK, he ended their relationship
‘Two weeks before he broke up with me, he booked me a ticket to go to England to visit. A week before he broke up with me, he just all of a sudden went cold.
‘He wasn’t calling me at the usual night time face time, he was like “I’m busy”.
‘Anyway, he dumps me.’
Ms Hawthorne said Cartwright had assured others that the relationship with Sophie did not start until about a month later.
Cartwright has since blocked Ms Hawthorne, and removed all her family and friends off Instagram.
A month after breaking up with Ms Hawthorne, Cartwright ‘is posting with this girl on social media’, she said.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Jed Cartwright cheated on his former partner, and has sought responses from him, his management, and Sophie.
