Man Utd icon’s topless mannequin spouse left him after he failed as a ‘husband, dad and human’

A Manchester United legend owned up to his shortcomings as a husband and dad in a brutally honest interview when his gorgeous wife left him – sparking a downward spiral that saw his career end in controversy.

Javier Hernandez earned the adoration of United fans during his five years at Old Trafford, after Sir Alex Ferguson swooped to sign him from Guadalajara in his native Mexico. The diminutive striker, known as Chicharito – Little Pea in Spanish – scored 20 goals in all competitions in his first season, as United won the Premier League and reached the Champions League final in 2011.

He would lift the title again in 2013, earning a reputation as a ‘super sub’ with one of the best minutes per goal ratios in Premier League history. But the disastrous reign of David Moyes saw him depart for Real Madrid on loan, then sign for Bayer Leverkusen, before returning to England with West Ham. And as his playing career petered out with spells at Sevilla and LA Galaxy, Mexico’s all-time record goalscorer also encountered cracks in his marriage with stunning model Sarah Kohan.

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Australian beauty Sarah graduated from Notre Dame in America having completed a law degree , after taking exchange courses at prestigious Harvard and Columbia universities.

But she had a passion for travelling and started blogging about her experiences, soon amassing a massive following on social media.

Sarah also became known as a model who loved to post racy pics online, including topless and naked snaps, often with smartly-placed food and outside on travelling adventures, for her one million followers on Instagram.

She secretly married the footballer in 2019. But by 2021, after having two children together, they had divorced.

Hernandez – who celebrated his 38th birthday on Monday, June 1 – first publicly addressed these issues when still plying his trade in the MLS.

Speaking back in 2021, he revealed how he had also battled depression, triggered by personal turmoil including the loss of his cherished grandfather.

The forward, whose stunning WAG initially fuelled breakup rumours by flying back to her homeland Australia with their two children in 2020, avoided naming his then partner directly in a candid chat.

But he told US sports and pop culture platform The Ringer: “I wasn’t the best partner I needed to be.

“I wasn’t the greatest dad that I wanted to be. I wasn’t a great friend. I wasn’t the great human being I wanted to be.”

Hernandez’s sister Ana Silvia, discussing the passing of their former professional footballer grandfather Tomas Balcazar, claimed “it kind of broke him”.

She said: “I don’t know how he managed to get through that season. It was like all his world collapsed in a minute.”

Hernandez, who bagged 59 goals in 157 appearances for Manchester United, had consistently sidestepped questions regarding his relationship with the mother of his two children.

The pair marked their son’s second birthday together in June 2021 with a celebration they arranged that Sarah shared snaps of on her social media. However, the party took place around the same time US website TMZ Sports reported Hernandez’s wife had filed for divorce.

The site also alleged influencer Kohan had submitted divorce papers earlier that year,, asserting in court documents filed by her solicitor that her footballer husband did not engage in the daily parenting of his two children. She asked for approximately £73,000 a month for “child and spousal support”.

Hernandez declined to address their widely reported divorce in his interview with The Ringer, but focused on how his late grandad was like his “second father”.

He disclosed how he lost the motivation to wake up, eat and even make his bed after his passing and would weep while training alone during the coronavirus pandemic.

Asserting that he realised at the lowest point of his descent into depression that he had been conforming to his public persona, he said: “I had to learn how to accept myself. People always identified me not by me, but something else. I played a character because that’s what we ask of famous people.”

Confessing that he told friends he had contemplated retiring from football entirely, the Guadalajara-born forward added: “I’ve always been very sensitive. A lot of times I tried to hide it. I realised I had to…I’m not the tallest. I’m not very big. I’m not very stereotypically masculine. We see a man cry, we think he’s weak, but we are all human.”

Hernandez, who bears a tattoo on one arm reading ‘love is my superpower’ had previously claimed poor form at LA Galaxy was linked to “personal issues”.

He later found love again when he started dating another model, Nicole McPherson, who had a child from a previous relationship. However, it soon fizzled out.

He had also been linked to Spanish actress Andrea Duro, who later said she ended their relationship because she felt “abandoned” and “disappointed” by his behaviour. Meanwhile, other partners accused him of cheating.

Speaking in 2023, Hernandez said it was difficult not being able to see his children regularly, after the separation from his wife Sarah.

He said: “I was terrified to make the decision that the marriage was not where it should be and that we had to look for another way and that it could not happen, because I knew that these prices could come.”

Sadly for Hernandez, his apparent bitterness over his failed marriage later saw him fined and warned by the Mexican Football Federation after he was accused of making a series of sexist remarks that were widely criticised, including by the Mexican president, when back playing for Guadalajara.

Speaking in a series of Instagram and TikTok uploads in July last year, he accused women of “eradicating masculinity” and “making society overly sensitive”, before adding that women “need to learn to honour masculinity”.

When Chicharito faced the first wave of criticism, he responded: “So you want a man to provide for you, but cleaning is patriarchal oppression… interesting.”

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum – the first woman to hold the office – said: “Hernandez is a good footballer, but when it comes to women, he still has a lot to learn. These are relationships of equality – it’s enshrined in the constitution and called substantive equality.

“The idea that a woman’s role is to stay at home… frankly, that’s a very machista notion. Let’s call things by their name. Women have everything it takes to grow and succeed.”

It was claimed that his sponsors Puma terminated all deals with him. Hernandez soon apologised: “I deeply regret any misunderstanding or discomfort my recent words may have caused. I never intended to limit, offend or divide anyone.

“I’ll use this opportunity to grow and keep working to become a better version of myself. Thank you for your understanding, dedication, love and support along the way.”

He was released by Guadalajara last December, after the club decided not to renew the injury-hit forward’s contract when it expired.

Without a club, he turned to TikTok again, releasing cooking videos, as he showed fans how to make his favourite sandwich – frying beef, chopping up vegetables and creating his own pesto for a Milanese sandwich, the Chicharito way.