London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jul 21, 2025

Wales rugby: Former women's boss says colleague made rape jibe

Wales rugby: Former women's boss says colleague made rape jibe

A former boss at Welsh women's rugby said she considered suicide because of what she claimed was a "toxic culture" of sexism at the Welsh Rugby Union.

Charlotte Wathan also said a male colleague said in front of others in an office that he wanted to "rape" her.

Another former female WRU employee, a mum of one, said she wrote a manual for her husband in case she killed herself.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) said that both cases were investigated and proper procedures were followed.

One MP, also a former Wales player, warned the allegations against a major UK sporting organisation were "on a level" with the racism scandal that rocked Yorkshire Cricket Club.

Tonia Antoniazzi has written to the Prince of Wales as patron of the WRU for a meeting to "create a better future for women and girls in rugby in Wales"

Ms Wathan, the former general manager of Welsh women's rugby, said she cried after the alleged rape comment was made towards her at the WRU's Vale of Glamorgan training base in 2019.

"Someone referring about me in an office environment that they wanted to rape me," she told the BBC Wales Investigates programme.

"Take me back to the hotel, tie me to the bed and rape me. I remember feeling sick, like a punch to the stomach. I remember standing in shock thinking, 'did I just hear that?'

"And everyone's laughing, and there was a senior member of staff there. I left the room and I burst into tears. I thought 'crikey, is this what it's come to?'"

The Welsh team are ninth in the women's rugby world rankings

The comment was eventually investigated by an external lawyer after Ms Wathan raised it with the WRU as part of a wider grievance, but the BBC has discovered a number of key witnesses, who she said could corroborate her allegations, were not spoken to as part of that investigation.

The man who allegedly made the comment also was not spoken to as part of the grievance. He still works at the WRU.

Ms Wathan, hired to help transform its struggling women's game in 2018, later started legal proceedings against the WRU.

But the WRU and Ms Wathan, who left the organisation early in 2022, reached an "amicable resolution" last month and a planned employment tribunal case was withdrawn.

The WRU told the BBC Ms Wathan's allegations remained unsubstantiated following a thorough independent legal investigation and that it could not comment further because her case had been settled since her interview with the BBC.

But it added it took any allegations from staff regarding behaviour, attitude and language seriously and if any allegations were substantiated it would act swiftly. It said such behaviour had no place in the WRU or Welsh rugby.

Ms Wathan said she told the WRU in 2021 the culture was "toxic" and she was too ill to return to work due to the impact on her mental health.

Charlotte Wathan helped develop a strategy for the women's game in Wales


"They'd beat me down. They'd won," she said.

"You just, at that point, think there's no hope. And nobody wants to take this seriously.

"This was probably one of the worst experiences of my life and it was dark. It was grim. And it could have cost me my life.

"I could have left my children without a mum, just because I was trying to develop the women's game."

Another female former WRU employee, who wants to remain anonymous, also alleged she suffered sexism and bullying by a manager within the organisation and left in 2018.

The second woman described her time at the organisation as "an open wound" and said she wrote a manual for her husband in case she killed herself.


"This wasn't about an incident here and an incident there," she said.

"It was constant undermining of me or my gender by nit-picking at irrelevant stuff.

"It takes you to a very dark, dark place when you can genuinely look at your husband and think 'you're young enough to meet someone else and my daughter is young enough to get another mother'.

"I went as far as to start drafting a manual for my husband and what to do in the event that I died."

She said she told HR that bullying and sexism at work had left her feeling suicidal and was advised to put in a grievance against the manager concerned and was told she could move to another office in the same building.

But she feared that complaining would make life her life more difficult so ended up leaving the WRU without raising a grievance.

She said she did give the name of the accused manager to HR and considered taking the WRU to an employment tribunal but the organisation argued she had left it too late to make a claim and there were no grounds.

The accusations come just days before the start of Wales' 2023 Six Nations campaign


"They bullied me by saying they would put in a costs order against me," she added.

"On the balance of what was most important for that time - my family and livelihood, or trying to fix an organisation I no longer work for? I chose my family and my livelihood."

The WRU told the BBC her case was investigated and proper procedures were followed.

New WRU chief executive Steve Phillips said in December the union would "never be complacent" on fighting discrimination and said "the expectations are very high and rightly so, on everybody in the WRU - and we will maintain those standards."

Ms Antoniazzi, a former Wales rugby international, has said women from inside the WRU had also raised concerns with her.

She said she wanted the Welsh government to set up an independent body to oversee complaints about Wales' sports governing bodies.

Founded in 1881, the WRU is responsible for running the sport in Wales from grassroots to international rugby


"This is on a level of what's happened in cricket," said the Labour MP for Gower.

"I have great, great concerns about the future of women's rugby in Wales.

"Unless you are a woman and, excuse the expression, but with balls and deep pockets, how on Earth do you take on somebody like the WRU and stand up to them without there being financial detriment, reputational detriment?

"Nobody holds them to account. They hold themselves to account, but they're marking their own homework. So what is the point? How do we know that this scandal now will [not] be resolved?"

It was not just sexism claims against the WRU but the BBC has spoken to two people who say they witnessed the "P-word" being used in an online staff meeting attended by a senior manager.

"A colleague was watching cricket in his living room on silent while on his laptop and the senior manager on the call asked what the score was," recalled witness Marc Roberts, a former manager in Welsh rugby's community game.

"That person used a racist term to describe who was in the lead of that cricket game.

"The conversation was between the manager and the individual who used that word. And nothing was said. I actually brought it up and said that term was unacceptable and inappropriate.

"At no stage did a senior manager, stop and say, 'you cannot use that term that's not an appropriate term'."

Marc Roberts left his WRU post after 20 years


Mr Roberts worked for the WRU for 20 years and said the culture had got worse in the past five years and he had warned bosses about what he had seen and heard from a number of women in the organisation.

He eventually quit the WRU this month.

He said: "I have seen no change in our culture. It's not a culture that likes to be challenged."

The WRU said how sad it was to hear how individuals in this programme felt and it would continue to work with staff to ensure they feel valued and listened to.

The WRU has previously spoken of its commitment to the women's game and last year gave Wales' women players professional contracts for the first time.


'He joked he wanted to rape me', claims Charlotte Wathan


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×