Kurt Capewell’s teammates are supporting him in a moment of need.
Footage of the Australian rugby star appearing in a gay porn video has been circulating online in recent weeks. The scene was shot eight years ago, and Capewell, who’s in a long-term relationship with a woman, says he was duped into participating. Touchingly, his teammates have his back.
Their support goes a long way towards erasing the stigma surrounding gay sex.
Last week, Capewell sent his teammates on the Penrith Panthers a message acknowledging the film. “Bit hard to put the full story into words but I was broke and doing some modeling, then I got talked into doing a porno,” the note reads, via the Sydney Morning Herald. “Unknown to me but it turned out they put a bloke on the other side of the wall.”
Capewell says he responded to an advertisement for a photo shoot involving a clothing company. Unbeknownst to him, he was expected to be nude, and says the organizer bribed him with extra cash to engage in sex acts with another man.
The National Rugby League integrity unit looked into the incident last year, and cleared Capewell of wrongdoing.
Another star Panther, Josh Mansour, told the Herald his foremost concern is Capewell’s mental health. “It was super brave of him to come forward,” he said. “I didn’t want him to do anything stupid. I didn’t care about anything else but him. We all let him know we supported him.”
Mansour’s words are echoed throughout the Panthers locker room.
“I’m really proud of the bloke,” said back-rower Liam Martin. “He said he was dealing it with himself for a while, and once he told us the support from the boys was pretty incredible. We’ll always stick by him.”
The Australian gay porn website that conned Capewell into appearing in those videos is infamous for its duplicitous tactics, reports news.com.au. The site is known for enlisting agents to trick young men into starring in pornographic films through various means.
It wasn’t long ago when the admittance of appearing in gay porn, even unknowingly, could’ve led to widespread harassment and alienation in the world of elite male athletics.
Capewell’s teammates are doing their best to ensure none of that happens.
“There was no questioning from the boys, we didn’t know his circumstances from eight years ago,” Martin said to the Herald. “We were all like, ‘yeah mate, we’ve got your back’.”