Who is Ben Dillaway? Inside Brittany Higgins’ on-off relationship with her ex-boyfriend around the time of her alleged rape – as her explosive texts in her hour of need are revealed

Ben Dillaway, Brittany Higgins' closest confidante, was her on-off lover and one of the first to be informed of her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann.

Mr Dillaway, a former political spin doctor turned media guru for a global company, was thrust back into the spotlight this week after flirtatious texts with Ms Higgins were revealed in court.

Five weeks after her alleged rape, Ms Higgins sent Mr Dillaway selfies she took in the same white dress she wore on the night she claims the incident took place.

The photos were part of a series of documents released by the Federal Court as part of Mr Lehrmann's defamation action against Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten.

“I'm working on my selfie game,” she wrote to Mr Dillaway, admitting in court this week that she was “trying to flirt”.

“F***, you look good,” Mr Dillaway, now a devout Christian, replied to the texts.

The former Gold Coast journalist was a longtime media adviser to Queensland Liberal MP Steve Ciobo when he first met Ms Higgins in late 2018.

The pair were brought together while working as coalition staffers in parliament, but within a few months they quickly became friends and, in early 2019, lovers.

Canberra insiders told Ny Breaking Australia the pair had “just hit it off” and embarked on what was described in court as a “close personal relationship”.

The friendship became intimate, but despite the close bond between the pair, their relationship never became serious.

Ms Higgins told the Federal Court this week that they had an on-again, off-again relationship and sometimes sent each other 'sexts'.

Party workers remember an “end of the world” mentality sweeping through Canberra at the time, with the government facing seemingly certain defeat at the federal election.

Coalition staffers were living on the edge of an uncertain future, insiders said, unsure where they would live or even whether they would have a job in a few months.

Relationships like those of Ms. Higgins and Mr. Dillaway can explode quickly but fade just as quickly, fellow staffers said.

Her whirlwind affair with Mr. Dillaway had already spiraled out of control by the time of the alleged rape, which Mr. Lehrmann vehemently denies, on March 23, 2019.

However, Mr. Dillaway, 38, was still considered a close friend and confidante.

In the aftermath of the alleged rape at Parliament House, Ms Higgins told him the drinks had ended up at the minister's office out of hours, which he found unusual.

She added: “I need to slow down a bit. It's probably gotten a bit out of hand lately haha.'

Three days after the alleged attack, she finally admitted to him that the night “didn't go the way I did.”

“I have no memory of getting there at all, I vaguely remember Bruce being there and then I woke up half dressed alone in the minister's office on Saturday morning,” she wrote.

“It was just Bruce and I really don't feel like it was consensual… Why did he leave me there like that?” she texted Mr. Dillaway.

“So he fucked you? I hope you're okay. These are some pretty serious, terrible things. You should probably report this,” he replied.

During last year's criminal trial of Mr Lehrmann – which was abandoned due to juror misconduct – Mr Dillaway told the ACT Supreme Court that Ms Higgins was a “broken, shattered person”.

“It was like a light had gone out inside her,” he said.

'I just remember her crying and really breaking down. I just had her in my arms and she was a broken person, I would say.”

He tried to persuade her to go to the police, but said she told him she “didn't want anyone to know” and that she was afraid of losing her “dream job” at the Secretary of Defense's office.

“She didn't want it, I think, to become what it is now – where she's the center of attention in the media,” Mr Dillaway – who is now in a new relationship – told the court.

Mr Dillaway said he just wanted to give her support and get her help, and contacted then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office.

“I said, 'Let me go and speak discreetly to someone from the Prime Minister's Office because this could certainly move things, or this would certainly get you the help you need,'” he told the court.

Eleven days after the alleged rape, Dillaway said he had contacted PMO employee Julian Leemruggen with Ms Higgins' permission to try to get the Prime Minister's support.

But in court this week, Ms Higgins added: 'As much as I trusted and truly adored Ben, he was still a senior media adviser to a Liberal minister.

'I didn't quite trust him that it wouldn't end up with one of his best friends [in the prime minister’s office] …so I didn't trust that all my thoughts and feelings weren't going straight back to the Liberal CHQ [campaign headquarters].'

Scott Morrison later denied that he was told about the allegations until a few days before they aired on The Project in February 2021.

Friends say the relationship was already on the back burner at the time of the rape allegations, but Ms Higgins said she tried to rekindle the affair five weeks later.

“We were stirring things up again,” Ms Higgins told the Federal Court, explaining why she sent him the photos of her in the white dress.

Ms Higgins – who is now engaged to former journalist David Sharaz – told the court she wore the dress again because it was her favorite and she wanted to 'reclaim' it.

She said: 'I took the pictures of myself in the bathroom because I felt awkward that night… I was trying to be flirty, I guess.'

But in the wake of the Coalition's surprise 2019 election victory, friends say the couple “simply grew apart and went their separate ways.”

Later that year, Mr. Dillaway rediscovered his religious beliefs and “came back” to his faith. He now regularly posts Bible verses on his private social media accounts.

He will be called as a witness in Lehrmann's defamation trial in federal court on Thursday – and on Wednesday he posted a Bible verse he said was relevant.

“I grew up Christian and while I have always believed in Jesus, I certainly did not always live that way,” the part-time motocross champion posted on Instagram.

“When I returned to my faith and started reading the Bible in 2019, this was one of my favorite verses.

“Since I'm scheduled to appear as a witness in federal court tomorrow, this is a verse I've been coming back to.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 NIV.”