GAME OF SHAME

She had only been with her boyfriend for a few months, so when Jaya Taki learnt she was pregnant, it was an emotionally overwhelming day for the 29-year-old. In those first heady hours in her Sydney home, feelings of shock, disbelief and anxiety could be suddenly offset by bursts of exhilaration and joy as she tried to wrap her head around what four home pregnancy tests confirmed after she missed her period. She picked up her phone and texted the news to a close friend, her fingers quivering on the screen’s keyboard. The friend was thrilled, even congratulating her, and Taki began to wonder what she was ever fretting about. Happiness began to take over, and she was suddenly looking ahead to a bright, new horizon.

Now she was even eager to tell her boyfriend, but that had to wait. He was at work at ANZ Stadium, an elite footballer in Australia’s beloved National Rugby League. Taki, a health therapist, had met the Wests Tigers’ centre Tim Simona through social media, and over four months of dating and “hanging out”, they had forged a dreamy bond. That day was game day at the Tigers’ home ground, which for Simona, not only meant chasing a Steeden across a hallowed paddock for 80 minutes, but an after-game function for the fans. By the time Taki messaged him to call her, it was late into that March 2016 evening. “He called, and I told him I was pregnant,” Taki tells . “And