The ex-girlfriend of former NRL star Jed Cartwright has revealed how he left 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 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 out to visit them and then move there permanently early next year.
But those dreams were shattered when he suddenly broke up with her.
Ms Hawthorne has since posted a TikTok video about the relationship, captioned: “When you’re 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 booked her on a flight to visit England this month in mid-July.
That was “two weeks before he broke up with me,” she claims in the video, adding: “Suddenly, he became cold.”
In the video, Ms Hawthorne describes how, hurt by the abrupt lack of contact, she began searching his social media and that her “female intuition” drew her to one particular woman among his Instagram followers, named Sophie.
Laura Hawthorne supported NRL star Jed Cartwright through his ups and downs and then, when he moved to the UK and promised they would have babies together, she cruelly dumped him.
After six years with Jed Cartwright, Laura Hawthorne was promised ‘babies, family life, everything she’d ever wanted’ – but the league player blocked her and appeared on social media with his new girlfriend.
“A month after breaking 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 to have kids with someone and planning your whole life to “I have to break up with you” and blocking me, deleting all my friends and family from Instagram,
‘I texted this girl saying, “I just need closure, let me know if anything happened.”
“She doesn’t respond…it’s disgusting.”
Ms Hawthorne said Cartwright did not even say goodbye to her two children, whose biological father had given them permission to move with her to the UK, in one of her last phone calls.
He had called, drunk after a night of partying, when she was driving him to school, and then made his final call in late July to tell her their long-term relationship was over.
Ms Hawthorne said that when she met Cartwright in 2018, he was not playing in the top flight and she was initially wary of dating a football player.
“He had never debuted and he was at the end of his contract and I thought, well, maybe I’ll give him a chance,” she says in the video, at times shaking and struggling to maintain her composure.
“He may not be a typical football player, so you gave him a chance. You’re a single mother of two and, yes, 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 turned “cold” towards her and broke up with new girlfriend Sophie (above).
Cartwright’s NRL career was a bit of a checkered affair. “He was basically in and out of the premiership, with a lot of injuries,” Hawthorne said, but he supported him and his team “through everything”.
Ms Hawthorne continued: ‘He will then join the Super League and leave at the end of June.
“He’s telling his family he’s going to join Hull FC. He’s on Facetime saying ‘yeah, Laura and I are having a baby there’.”
‘He told me he didn’t have to work, and I told him I wanted to work, and that we were going to Italy.
“He booked me a ticket to visit him in September, and I was going to move there in February,” she said, through tears.
‘I went and asked my children’s father for permission to take them there. The children’s father gave his consent.
Jed Cartwright called his partner of six years to tell her their relationship was over. Weeks later he appeared on social media with Sophie, from Hull, who appears to be his new girlfriend.
Jed Cartwright (above with Laura Hawthorne) had talked to her about having babies and marriage, but just weeks after telling her he was booking his 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 me. A week before he broke up with me, he suddenly became cold.
‘He didn’t call me at the usual time on FaceTime in the evening, but instead said, “I’m busy.”
‘Anyway, leave me.’
Ms Hawthorne said Cartwright had assured others that the relationship with Sophie did not begin until about a month later.
Cartwright has since blocked Ms Hawthorne and removed all of her family and friends from Instagram.
A month after breaking up with Hawthorne, Cartwright “is posting with this girl on social media,” she said.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Jed Cartwright cheated on his ex-partner and has sought answers from him, his manager and Sophie.