During his playing days, Shane Warne was a showstopper on the field. However, he often used to grab headlines because of his off-field antics. In fact, his high-profile romance with actress Liz Hurley kept him in the news even after his international retirement.

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Warne, who represented Australia in 145 Tests and 194 ODIs, recently opened up about the phase (2011-2013) in which he dated Hurley and the weird scrutiny he found himself under.

“When I got together with Elizabeth, that was really odd because I had the sporting media that would follow you then I suppose the entertainment media collide, so everyday, anywhere we went we were followed by anywhere between six to 10 paparazzi photographers that would run you off the road,” Warne said on the You Cannot Be Serious podcast with former AFL Footy Show star Sam Newman, AFL journalist Mike Sheahan and Don Scott.

“They would follow you — stop you, two cars in front of you, make you react … my kids in the car were scared one day too. It was ridiculous.

“Mainly here in Melbourne and it was more intense in the UK.

“Little things like you’d walk out of the house and there’d be six photographers there and I’d have my tracky pants on and a T-shirt and suddenly the next day all the papers would critique you and you’re going, ‘What?’ Who gives a s***, really.

“That was sort of weird but we used to laugh about it. Elizabeth laughed about it, I laughed about it, but it was quite a fun time.”

The King of Spin said he was pretty pleased with how he won the actress over before adding that they “still speak all the time” and remain good friends.

“I was pretty happy with myself, I played it calmly and nicely,” Warne said of their initial meeting on the podcast.

“We crossed paths and hit it off straight away.

“She was lovely, she was fantastic.

“She’s still a very good friend, we still speak all the time. She’s great.”

Giving an insight into the relationship in his book "No Spin" released last year, Warne had said there was “no single, clear reason” why it ended in December 2013. However, he felt a TV series played a big part in their split up.

“The more you’re apart, the more you ask questions,” Warne wrote. “I got jumpy about the time Elizabeth still spent with Hugh Grant … He is her best friend but they saw each other more when I wasn’t around so, well, you know.”