Natalie Ager – the wife of AFL and reality TV star Todd Elton – is facing a bill for thousands after a court criticised her ‘contradictory’ accident injury claim and ordered her to pay huge legal costs.
Ager, 30, met Elton six years ago after filming wrapped up on season two of Nine Network’s Love Island Australia where he dated Jessie Wynter in 2019.
The couple got engaged in 2023 and registered nurse Ager married the former Richmond Tigers AFL player at Rutherglen’s All Saints Winery in Victoria last year.
The couple announced earlier this year that they were expecting their first child in June.
But they are now facing a bill for an estimated $50,000 or more after the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered her to pay Transport Accident Commission’s legal costs.
Ager had tried to sue the TAC for damages after she said a collision on July 30, 2019 left her with a lumbar spine injury which had wrecked her nursing career.
But the Daily Mail can reveal Ager had been the victim of multiple car crashes in the years before she tied the knot with Elton.
Judge Julie Clayton dismissed her legal bid in May 2024, finding Ager failed to prove the crash injured her as she claimed, and ordered Ager to pay TAC’s legal costs.
Registered nurse Natalie Ager is facing a bill for thousands after a court found her accident injury claim was bogus and ordered her to pay huge legal costs
Natalie Ager married former Richmond Tigers AFL player Todd Elton at Rutherglen’s All Saints Winery in Victoria last year
But two years later the costs remain unpaid.
Now the TAC is demanding Ager pay its extensive legal costs, which could even run into six figures, as well as her own legal expenses.
In paperwork lodged with the Supreme Court of Victoria obtained by the Daily Mail, the TAC says it hopes to have the final figure sorted by next month.
Ager was seeking compensation for an accident in 2019 when she was driving to work and was struck ‘heavily from behind’ while she was stopped at traffic lights.
The airbags didn’t deploy, no ambulance or police were called, and she drove herself home, court documents stated.
Ager told the court that ‘my low back was in agony’ that night, but she didn’t see a doctor.
She said she pushed through the pain and was back at work within days at her new graduate nursing job at Epworth Hospital.
She told the court she felt she had ‘no choice’ given how recently she’d started, and it was almost a month later before she sought any medical help for her back.
The couple announced earlier this year that they were expecting their first child in June
They are now facing a bill for an estimated $50,000 or more after the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered her to pay Transport Accident Commission’s legal costs
When she did finally see her GP, she didn’t even mention the car accident, which only appeared in her medical records three weeks later, the court heard.
Court documents revealed Ager had actually been fighting back problems for years before the 2019 smash – stemming from a much more dramatic accident in December 2013.
That earlier crash was a high-speed, head-on collision at more than 100km/h that landed her in hospital, the court heard.
Judge Clayton found the 2013 accident was to blame for Ager’s most significant complaints, including her chronic back pain and inability to work as a ‘bedside’ nurse.
Ager had originally sought to sue over that accident too, but dropped the claim on the morning of the hearing, apparently in a bid to avoid ‘muddying the waters’ of her case.
‘Ms Ager’s evidence was at times confusing and contradictory. In some respects it was unreliable,’ Judge Clayton stated.
Medical records showed the young nurse had been complaining of back pain to her GP since 2010, with further attendances in 2015 and 2018, including one in December 2018, seven months before the second crash, in which she reported ‘chronic lower back stiffness getting worse’.
The court heard Ager managed to continue in her demanding graduate nursing role after the 2019 accident, working gruelling 10-12 hour shifts for nearly four months after the crash.
The court heard Ager managed to continue in her demanding graduate nursing role after the 2019 accident, working gruelling 10/12 hour shifts for nearly four months after the crash
Todd Elton during a Richmond Tigers training session in Melbourne in 2017
She only stopped when she broke her ankle in an unrelated dancing accident that November.
When her own barrister asked how she’d coped with the job after the crash, Ager answered: ‘I was okay.’
Judge Clayton suggested Ager had struggled to disentangle her symptoms pre- and post-2019, which the judge admitted ‘can feel artificial’.
The court also picked apart some of Ager’s other claims, including that the crash had ended her ability to snowboard or ski.
Ager later admitted under cross-examination she’d only hit the slopes about three times in her life, hadn’t done so in years even before the accident, and had always been too scared of falling and hurting her back to go anyway.
Her claim that anxiety behind the wheel was linked to the 2019 smash also unravelled, with the judge noting it was far more likely a legacy of the earlier, more violent 2013 crash.
Surveillance footage submitted by the TAC, showing Ager getting in and out of cars and driving without any obvious trouble, further undercut her case.
After conflicting medical evidence, Judge Clayton said only some consequences could be blamed on the 2019 accident, including intermittent leg pain, pins and needles, some trouble sleeping and needing over-the-counter painkillers.
Todd hit fame when he appeared on Love Island Australia
Ager, 30, met Elton six years ago after filming wrapped up on season two of Nine Network’s Love Island Australia where he dated Jessie Wynter in 2019
To sue the TAC for damages in Victoria, a claimant must show their injuries are ‘at least very considerable’, and not just ‘significant’ or ‘marked’.
Judge Clayton found the consequences she could fairly attribute to the 2019 crash simply didn’t clear that bar.
‘I am unable to attribute those consequences to the July 2019 accident,’ the judge wrote.
She dismissed Ager’s application for leave to sue outright and sent her home with nothing.
The Supreme Court is expected to deal with the costs matter on August 17.
