In a candid interview with the Daily Mail, South Africa’s Francois Hougaard opened up about his life, his business interests and that fateful night in 2013 when his ex-girlfriend was shot and killed by former Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius.
He was asked about the fall out after it was implied in the media that he had sent a message to Reeva on the night that she was killed which it was suggested had caused a row between the couple and had ended in the shooting.
Francois told the Daily Mail, “ Reeva and I dated for quite a while. One of my best mates phoned me at seven o'clock when I was playing golf to tell me what had happened. He was the first to get to the house. It's a shock when you hear something like that, isn't it? It's tough. Everyone was saying I sent Reeva a message and that's why he shot her. I had nothing to do with her any more but it's all people were asking me about. Mentally, that was a really tough thing to go through. It was tough because rugby is 80 per cent mental, if you're not mentally where you need to be, then you're not going to play well. I went to see a psychologist to talk about it. That taught me to deal with negative situations. That taught me to turn things into positive fuel and not to sulk.”
Hougaard who now plays for the Premiership club Worcester has two and a half years left on his contract and says that Worcestershire is his “happy place”.
Source : Daily Mail
