Carey ashamed of behaviour, says Denton

Former AFL star Wayne Carey is too ashamed of his behaviour to go out in public.

Carey, 36, has admitted to binge drinking and using cocaine in an interview with Andrew Denton, to air on ABC's Enough Rope on Monday night.

Denton described Carey as "articulate, polite and almost charming" throughout the two-hour interview, in which he opened up about how he has been spending his time.

"He has been too embarrassed to go outside for the past eight weeks and has been hiding from house to house because he's so ashamed of what he's done," Denton has told News Ltd.

"We forensically went though everything on the record about him since 1995, all the incidents he has been involved in.

"We also talked to his family members, his older brother Dick and older sister Karen, who were there to piece together how he went from being the king to where he is today."

Carey is expected to be charged over lashing out at police during a domestic dispute at his Port Melbourne penthouse on January 27.

The former Melbourne premiership captain is already facing criminal charges for assaulting police in the US state of Florida, after a wine glass was smashed in his girlfriend's face last October.

The revelations about Carey's behaviour have resulted in him losing various lucrative jobs in the football media.

Denton said Carey denied intentionally striking his girlfriend.

"It's one of the hardest interviews I've ever had to do because normally there's light and shade, difficult things and good things, but this was all difficult," he said.

"When I asked him about being aggressive toward women, he was surprised he'd be seen that way."

Denton said Carey had been evasive in the interview.

"I think he came really wanting to be candid but left not being as candid as he wanted to be," Denton told Fairfax.

Carey also denied he had been paid for a New Idea interview that he and his girlfriend gave, in which he admitted to having a cocaine problem, Fairfax reported.

Carey will appear in court in Miami next month on two felony charges of aggravated battery of a police officer and a charge of resisting arrest with violence.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in an American jail.

Meanwhile, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Carey's fall from grace was "overwhelmingly sad" but there was a message there for footballers and the community.

"I'm like many Australians who have watched what has happened to Wayne Carey and I find it overwhelmingly sad," Ms Gillard said on Fairfax Radio Network on Friday.

She said he was an incredibly talented footballer who, in the normal course of events, would have gone on to a successful media career.

"So it is depressing to see all of these circumstance around Wayne Carey and there is a message there for football and a message there for community," she said.

"Alcohol has obviously played a big part in this ... and we're obviously, as a government, saying to young people that alcohol isn't a solution to life's problems, binge drinking isn't a way of dealing with young adulthood.

"And as Wayne Carey's life story tends to show, there is heavy price that ends up being paid by alcohol misuse."</p>