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Wife stays with cheating Nel

Pretoria - The wife of former Proteas bowler André Nel, has finally spoken publicly about the cheating scandal that has embroiled her husband, saying she would stand by him.

According to Gabisile Ndebele of The Times website, Deanne Weitz, who has been married to Nel since 2004, spoke on Talk Radio 702 about how hurt she was by the exposure of her husband's infidelity.

Weitz, who is expecting the couple's first child in April, said she was hurt by the people who were quick to judge her life and decide what actions she should take.

"André and I have done a series of counselling. We've done our fighting, we've done our crying, we've done it and we've sorted it out," she said.

"You guys just dragged it up and rubbed salt in a very sensitive wound.

On Wednesday, Nel's affair with 34-year-old blonde Latvian Jelena Kultiasova broke.

Nel confessed to "having sex twice, or three times", with Kultiasova during their two-week long affair while he was playing county cricket for Surrey last month.

On Thursday, two more women, a 29-year-old from Durban and 38-year-old single mother from London, came forward with details of love trysts they claimed to have had with the cricketer.

On Friday, Nel reportedly attempted to commit suicide.

Weitz confirmed that doctors had been called to the couple's swanky home in Irene outside of Pretoria after her husband tried to take his own life.

"I don't want to comment on that, André has hit rock bottom and he's lower than any person could be in his life. For a man, he is in a very, very bad place," she said on radio.

"I still love him. I'm extremely angry, extremely hurt, extremely confused, but I love him and we still need to decide what he is going to do and what I am going to do," she said.

"He needs to rectify his way back to God."

This is not the first time Nel has made the news - for the wrong reasons.

Nel has always been a fiery character on the field and blames it on his alter-ego, 'Gunter'.

Nel first made the headlines in February 2001 when he felled his hero Allan Donald with a fierce bouncer during a domestic first-class match. Although Nel burst into tears when Donald was forced to leave the field, it later emerged that he was following instructions from coach Ray Jennings to target South Africa's premier fast bowler.

In 2003 Nel was sent home from the South Africa 'A' tour of Australia after being stopped by Tasmanian police and found to be driving under the influence of alcohol.

Later that year, during the tour of the West Indies, Nel, along with four team-mates, was found guilty of smoking dagga.

In a 2005 Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground he was the subject of racial taunts, in Afrikaans, from fans. 

In early 2009, Nel was banned for three matches after reports of abusive language in an MTN40 Championship match between the Cape Cobras and Highveld Lions.

In May this year, his English county Surrey suspended Nel for two matches following continued on-pitch controversies.

Nel played 36 Tests for the Proteas, taking 123 wickets in the process. He also played 79 ODIs (126 wickets) and two Twenty20 internationals (two wickets).
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