Footy superstar Sonny Bill Williams has revealed how he married his wife just four weeks after meeting her - despite knowing he didn't love her at the time.
In his explosive autobiography 'You Can't Stop The Sun From Shining', the former All Black opened up about how his now-wife Alana Raffie helped him escape a life of womanising, partying and drugs.
Williams admitted to 'chatting up' Raffie after she caught his eye working at a Sydney retail store in 2013.
She refused to hand over her phone number and questioned how many other women he had flirted with that day, but after two weeks of persistence from Williams the pair committed to a Muslim courtship.
'When we got together, straight away we said we're going to do it Islamically correct, so even in that first four weeks I wasn't with her by myself, we always had a chaperone – her cousin and cousin's husband.'' Williams told The Saturday Telegraph.
'It was all about respect; she has rights over me, I have rights over her, striving to be the best husband I could be, she was striving to be the best wife she could be.
Williams said the pair eventually 'grew to love each other', despite not having romantic feelings to begin with.
Sonny Bill Williams has revealed how he asked his now-wife Alana Raffie to marry him despite knowing they weren't in love. The pair had a traditional Islamic courtship and now share four beautiful children
The pair married four weeks after meeting each other, and followed strict Islamic tradition during the 'dating' period. The pair were never alone together and were chaperoned by Alana's cousin and cousin's husband
The couple have since had four children together and have credited their shared dedication to Islam for putting an end to the sporting star's former wild partying days.
In an excerpt from his autobiography, Williams revealed the 'party hard' culture of the game led to his womanising, binge drinking and substance abuse.
The star also opened up about the 'humiliation' he faced over an incident where fooled around with former ironwoman Candice Warner in a toilet stall at Sydney's Clovelly Hotel in 2007.
'Both she and I will have to live with that mistake for the rest of our lives. It made headlines around a good part of the world,' Williams wrote.
'It was embarrassing, and not just for myself. There's the woman involved, of course, though she was a single adult woman and so it really was no one else's business what she did.
'But I had a girlfriend at home who was publicly humiliated as well as suffering the pain of
