Candice Warner, the wife of disgraced former vice-captain of Australian cricket team David Warner, confessed on Sunday that she blamed herself for Dave’s part in the sandpapergate scandal.

“I feel like it’s all my fault and it’s killing me — it’s absolutely killing me,” Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph quoted Candice Warner as saying.

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Candice also claimed that the taunts that Australian team faced in South Africa took a toll on them.

However, she later clarified that she was not making excuses for David’s behaviour, but claimed David was “protecting me as much as he could and protecting the girls (their children)”.

Earlier, in the ongoing four-match Test series between Australia and South Africa, Candice was slut-shamed by Proteas fans to get into David Warner’s nerve.

The South African fans were seen wearing the face mask of Rugby player Sonny Bill Williams during the second Test in reference to a reported intimate encounter that Candice Warner had with him in 2007 — long before she met David.

Even two senior CSA officials were also spotted clicking photographs with three spectators wearing All Black rugby player Sonny Bill Williams face masks.

“Dave would come home from the game and see me in tears in the bedroom, and the girls just looking at their mum, it’s been heartbreaking,” she said.

“When we were in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Dave would come home and, yes, I always put on a strong front and I turn out to the games.”

“But seeing them wearing the masks, to have people staring and pointing and laughing at me, to have the signs, to have, you know, the songs made up about me, I would have to sit there and cop that.”

“I’m sure there were things he wanted to say but he just couldn’t get it out. He is hurting. He is seriously, seriously struggling and he’s not in a great headspace,” Candice concluded.

The much-talked-about ball-tampering incident took place on the third day of Test against South Africa in Newlands, Cape Town last week.

Following the incident, former Australian captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for 12 months from International and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia.

Young Aussie player Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on camera, tampering the ball, has been banned for nine months.