Andy Carroll reveals he was sexually assaulted at his home in 2021 in new autobiography

Andy Carroll has revealed he was sexually assaulted at his home in 2021 and has made the incident public in his autobiography Owning it.

Carroll, 37, is a former England striker who won nine caps and has played for Liverpool, West Ham, Newcastle, Reading, West Brom, and French sides Amiens and Bordeaux. The episode occurred during his second spell with his hometown club Newcastle. He is now a player/co-owner of non-league club Dagenham & Redbridge. As a victim of sexual assault he was automatically granted anonymity and the man responsible was jailed for three years.

Carroll says he decided to include the account in Owning it "at the very last minute" after discussing it with his girlfriend Lou Teasdale. He told how a friend of his former partner, who was away at the time, had come to his home to watch a boxing match and was due to stay over.

According to Carroll, the assault happened while he was sleeping; he says he threw the man out of the house and then knocked him unconscious when the man tried to return. Carroll called the police and was "sobbing" in the arms of his children's nanny after the incident.

The unnamed attacker was found guilty of sexual offences, was placed on the sex offender register and received a three-year jail sentence. Carroll testified at the subsequent trial, a process he described as "humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous".

Carroll wrote: "I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now. "Me and Lou spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not. I avoided my publisher for so long that they probably suspected I got cold feet. "Scary to talk about but it's made [me] the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then good, it will have been worth it." He also wrote: "What happened to me affected every facet of my life. I'd think about it every day, making it difficult to focus on anything else, including football… The trauma of what happened to me hasn't gone away."

Carroll joined Dagenham in July 2025 and has made six appearances in the National League South this season.