AFL legend Ben Cousins is reaping the mental and physical benefits of his new healthy lifestyle.
The doting dad, 46, recently enjoyed a family holiday in the Northern Territory with his children Angelique, 11, and Bobby, 13, to close out 2024.
Ben was spotted arriving into Sydney Airport from an international flight on Monday, needing little more than a plain black T-shirt to flaunt the results of his gym regime.
It’s unclear exactly where the retired athlete has been on his travels, but the size of his suitcase and duffel bag indicate he’s been away for at least a week.
The former football player revealed his bulging biceps in the loose shirt, which he teamed with a pair of green cargo pants and Vans sneakers for his flight.
Ben sported a deep tan as he strolled through the airport shops at pace, stopping only at a Telstra mobile outpost.
AFL legend Ben Cousins, 46, is reaping the mental and physical benefits of his new healthy lifestyle after a dramatic fall from grace
The former football player revealed his bulging biceps in the loose shirt, which he teamed with a pair of green cargo pants and Vans sneakers for his flight
The Dancing With The Stars contestant appears to have kept up with his weight lifting during his time away, with his broad shoulders straining against the cotton T-shirt.
In December, the former football legend gave his social media followers a little insight to his fitness regime.
‘Sometimes you’ve just got to drag yourself here…I feel better for it,’ he said after filming a weights session at the gym.
In the video he shared, Ben performed an incline bench press with dumbbells, before moving on to target his shoulders and lats.
He also got down on the floor and did some old fashion medicine ball exercises.
In the caption to his clip, Ben also wrote, ‘Days when you don’t want to do it, are the days you should do it! Get after it.’
Ben has turned his turbulent life around after a heartbreaking battle with drug addiction and recently revealed that he is the ‘happiest he has ever been’.
His turnaround has also included working hard at rebuilding his relationship with his two pre-teen children.
Ben sported a bronzed tan as he strolled through the airport shops at pace, stopping only at a Telstra mobile outpost in Sydney Airport
The former football player flaunted his bulging biceps in a black tank top and shorts, teamed with black sneakers and socks
‘You know, everyone’s path is different, but for me it (addiction) didn’t happen overnight,’ he told the Ball Magnets podcast in October.
‘But there was a bigger picture and then eventually everything unravelled.’
Ben said what started as blowing off some steam on the weekends to ‘escape’ his high pressure football career soon became something far darker.
‘For me, I did that in ways that, maybe not in the beginning, eventually became problematic.
‘In the beginning it was the odd night out drinking with whoever, but pretty quickly for me that did not quite hit the spot and it was taking something.’
‘It is certainly not lost on me, or forgotten, the hard work and commitment that it has taken to get back to where I am,’ he explained earlier in 2024.
‘It is the long game… You don’t just do something and then all of a sudden it changes overnight.’
Ben played 238 games and booted 205 goals for West Coast between 1996 and 2007, winning the premiership in his penultimate season in Perth.
The former midfielder captained the Eagles from 2001 to 2005, securing the club’s best and fairest award in four out of those five seasons.
He was suspended by the club in March 2007 – just six months after the grand final triumph over Sydney – for alleged substance abuse and sacked six months later after being arrested for drug possession and refusing to submit to a blood test.
He returned to the AFL in 2009 with Richmond, before retiring at the end of the 2010 season.
He was jailed on six separate occasions in 13 years and spent seven months behind bars in 2020, when he apparently decided enough was enough.
He is now on the right path and is reading the news for Seven in Western Australia, and recently appeared on Dancing With The Stars.
Ben has said he only regrets how long it took to get clean.
