'WE WERE HAPPY- WE WERE IN LOVE!'

When Simone Callahan first laid eyes on Shane 30 years ago, she could never have imagined how much her life would change

With his shock of unruly hair and a love handle or two, an up-and-coming Shane Warne was completely stoked when a striking blonde model with an easy laugh and a big smile started flirting with him at a star-studded event in Melbourne three decades ago.

That beautiful woman who fell for his larrikin charm was his future wife Simone Callahan.

"I really didn't have a clue what he did" says Simone, who was working as a promo girl for Foster's beer when they met at the celebrity event just days before he made his test debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1992.

"I just liked him. He was a genuine type of person - cute!"

Taking only one wicket from 45 overs, it was a terrible start to his test career and gave Simone no hint of how much their lives would change just 17 months later, when he bowled what became known as the "Ball of the Century" in his Ashes debut at Old Trafford.

“It sort of changed my whole life on and off the field,” Shane said last year.

Even Simone remembers the early days of sharing Shane with the world fondly. “There was a lot of attention, but it wasn't crazy," she says. “Everything that was happening, it was happening to both of us. It was exciting. It was good fun."

Shane and Simone married in Melbourne on 1 September 1995, in front of their family, friends and a collection of cricket greats, but with his sporting career skyrocketing, she had to adjust to her new husband spending months away from home.