Watch Unfiltered: Alex Carey lays bare emotional toll of explosive 2023 Ashes on Seven and 7plus Sport

Australian Test star Alex Carey has opened up on the criticism and abuse he received in the UK during the explosive Ashes series of 2023.

In a compelling episode of Unfiltered with gun interviewer Hamish McLachlan, Carey has detailed the emotional toll the tour had on himself and his family.

Watch the full episode of Unfiltered after stumps on Day 2 of the Perth Test at 9pm AEDT on Seven and 7plus Sport.

The 2023 Ashes will be forever remembered for the Aussie wicketkeeper’s controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow (when Bairstow wandered out of the crease when thinking the ball was dead).

It was the flashpoint of the series, sparked headlines about the “spirit of the game”, and even now is still a sensitive talking point.

Carey, 34, has now told Unfiltered that the fallout was unfair and “unwarranted”.

“For a cricketing act, the amount of abuse was pretty unwarranted, I thought,” he told McLachlan.

“But again, we play sport and we’re in the arena and whatever comes your way, you accept.

“You don’t ever love hearing that amount of abuse come your way but when you now sit back and look at it all, you learn to deal with it a bit better.”

He said at the time it felt like the whole of England was “going” at him.

“You probably second guess yourself at the time. I get abused if I make 100, I get abused if I make a duck,” he told Unfiltered.

“That’s pretty natural. But I think just because there’s so much of it and when you’re in England, it’s hard to escape, so I think potentially through that series there were some moments where I felt a little bit distracted, but that’s probably fair given how much emotion that was around to be distracted at times.

“It’s hard to escape all that noise when it’s pretty much a whole country going at you all at once.”

He said he was grateful his wife, Eloise, was over there.

“For her to be over there and support me firstly – the kids were over there too so at times she probably had to block their ears a little bit through all of that,” he said.

“I met her when I was 20 and through that bumpy period was able to come out of the end of it and achieve some amazing things.

“Again, through that period a lot goes down to Eloise. The love, the support and encouragement as sports people you have good days and a lot of bad days and it’s about finding that balance in between. With her and now the kids, it’s really easy to find that.”

In the interview with Seven’s Hamish McLachlan, Carey also discusses his AFL journey before his professional cricket career, and missing the World Cup squad.

Don’t miss the first cricket-themed episode of Unfiltered with Hamish McLachlan, featuring Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Straight after stumps on Day 2 of the Perth Test at 9pm AEDT on Seven and 7plus Sport.