NRL star Sam Burgess and his wife Phoebe Burgess will skip the Dally M Awards

Last year, all eyes were on the stylish Phoebe Burgess when she walked the Dally M Awards red carpet in a stunning Alex Perry gown with her husband, NRL star Sam Burgess.

But that won't be the case tonight when the annual event kicks off in Sydney's Circular Quay as the couple reportedly won't be attending.

The supposed no-show comes in the wake of the lewd sexting scandal that rocked the South Sydney Rabbitohs two weeks ago. On September 14, a 23-year-old came forward to the Daily Telegraph claiming that Sam's Facebook account was used by unnamed Rabbitohs players to send lewd images to her via video call.

An investigation by the club and the NRL's Integrity Unit cleared Sam, 29, of any wrongdoing. Sam has since revealed that he plans to take legal action.

"I have not sexted anyone," the star forward tweeted on September 21. "I fully cooperated with the inquiry as I said I would. I have engaged lawyer Chris Murphy to pursue my remedies and he has retained defamation lawyers."

When news of the sexting scandal broke, Phoebe -- who is 28 weeks pregnant with her and Sam's second child -- cancelled a scheduled appearance at the Colgate Optic White Stakes Day at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse, where she was an ambassador.

"Phoebe is heavily pregnant, there is no way she could have put herself in that situation," a friend of the former journalist told the Daily Telegraph. "The stress would have been all too much."

The paper also reported that Phoebe had cancelled the custom-made designer gown she had planned to wear to tonight's Dally M Awards.

And it's not just the couple who are said to be giving the awards ceremony a miss -- Sam's brothers and Rabbitohs team mates, George Burgess and Tom Burgess (who are twins), will also not attend.

But according to an NRL spokesperson, invitations were only extended to "positional nominees and club captains," so the trio were never invited in the first place. Hard to believe given in past ceremonies players who weren't nominated were still welcome at the event.