Tracy Grimshaw is leaving A Current Affair: A look back on her 40-year career

Across her 17 years at the helm on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair, Tracy Grimshaw has grilled the great and the good – and had more than her fair share of feisty run-ins.

The veteran presenter, 62, shocked viewers on Tuesday night when she announced she is stepping down from her role as she was ‘tired’, insisting she hadn’t fallen victim to a ‘boys club’ wanting younger faces on screen.

Her brilliant career has seen the TV journalist lighting up the screen for Channel Nine for more than 40 years locking horns with prime ministers, A-list celebrities and  abhorrent criminals.

She’s covered everything from the Beaconsfield mine collapse, to the Bali bombings and the Covid pandemic.

Daily Mail Australia takes a look back at some of Grimshaw’s most memorable moments across her stellar four-decade-long career.

Tracy Grimshaw (left) didn’t miss when she gave Scott Morrison (right) a piece of her mind on A Current Affair in May

Scott Morrison eviscerated 

With the election just days away and the Coalition trailing in the polls, Scott Morrison may have seen his May appearance on A Current Affair as a ‘soft interview’ and a chance to regain some ground.

But Grimshaw saw it very differently and delivered a scathing assessment of the then Prime Minister’s leadership skills.

She didn’t mince her words, outlining what she saw as his numerous failures and embarrassing gaffes as leader.

‘You said on Sunday that you saved the country, (but) you didn’t hold a hose (during the bushfires), you weren’t in your tinny plucking people off rooftops (during the floods in NSW and Queensland), and you didn’t do 16 hour days in PPE (personal protective equipment) on Covid-19 wards,’ she said.

‘You didn’t have enough vaccines, you didn’t get enough RAT tests so we could finally have a holiday interstate for Christmas.

‘Do you think maybe you slightly over egged the part about saving the country?’

Mr Morrison managed to keep his composure before informing the fired-up Grimshaw it was ‘quite a long list you’ve been able to pull together.’

Over the years, Grimshaw has also crossed swords with many other politicians, including former prime minister Bob Hawke and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. 

Gordon Ramsey gets grilled 

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey had never got on with Grimshaw when they’d previously gone head to head, but it was what happened after their June 2009 encounter that showed who was boss.

In front of an audience of thousands at a Melbourne food and wine festival, Ramsay described the Channel Nine legend as ‘a lesbian’.

He then showed a picture of a naked woman on her hands and knees who had multiple breasts and the facial features of a pig.

‘That’s Tracy Grimshaw,’ he said. ‘I had an interview with her yesterday, holy c**p. She needs to see Simon Cowell’s Botox doctor.’ 

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey (pictured left) faced off with Tracy Grimshaw (right) on A Current Affair in 2009

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey (pictured left) faced off with Tracy Grimshaw (right) on A Current Affair in 2009

Ramsay went on to make more disparaging comments about Grimshaw at the festival.

She fired back by slamming the renowned chef during on A Current Affair.

‘Gordon Ramsay made me promise not to ask on Friday about his private life. He then got on stage on Saturday and made some very clear and uninformed insinuations about mine,’ Grimshaw said.

‘Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn’t find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don’t and I’m not.’

In May, Tracy Grimshaw (pictured) made headlines for a heated interview with Scott Morrison in the lead up up to the Federal Election

In May, Tracy Grimshaw (pictured) made headlines for a heated interview with Scott Morrison in the lead up up to the Federal Election 

Grimshaw's mum was upset by comments celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey made about her

Grimshaw’s mum was upset by comments celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey made about her

Ramsey had upset Grimshaw’s mum with his comments.  

‘When you upset my mother you upset me,’ she said. 

‘She was upset that someone would attack me like that so I thought, dammit, I’ll have a bit of a crack back at him,’ she told Fairfax radio at the time.

She also told her viewers on A Current Affair that the comments were no joke, which was what Ramsey had tried to pass them off as.

Tracy Grimshaw celebrated 40 years at Channel Nine in October last year. Pictured in 2008

Tracy Grimshaw celebrated 40 years at Channel Nine in October last year. Pictured in 2008

Grimshaw's most biggest ACA interviews include Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Celine Dion and Sharon Stone, but she has also told the stories of everyday people

Grimshaw’s most biggest ACA interviews include Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Celine Dion and Sharon Stone, but she has also told the stories of everyday people

‘Truly, I wonder how many people would laugh if they were effectively described as an old, ugly pig,’ she said.

Grimshaw had considered not responding to Ramsay’s comments.

‘But we all know that bullies thrive when no one takes them on, and I’m not going to sit meekly and let some arrogant narcissist bully me.’

The horse and the life-saving helmet  

In May 2015 the TV presenters said she would have died if she hadn’t been wearing a helmet when she was involved in a horse-riding accident. 

Grimshaw had to take two weeks off ACA after she was knocked unconscious when she was thrown from her horse, Wombat, at a property in Arcadia in northwest Sydney. 

‘I got off comparatively lightly from the accident, and that’s partly due to great medical care, but mostly due to wearing a helmet,’ she said at the end of the show on her return.

‘I have no doubt I’d be dead without it, so never go riding without a helmet, and don’t let your friends do it. It’s a life-and-death decision.’ 

Tracy Grimshaw is pictured on a stretcher being carried to a helicopter to be transferred to a hospital after being thrown from a horse

Tracy Grimshaw is pictured on a stretcher being carried to a helicopter to be transferred to a hospital after being thrown from a horse

The Channel Nine presenter is pictured about to be placed onboard a helicopter. She credits wearing a helmet with saving her life after she was thrown from a horse

The Channel Nine presenter is pictured about to be placed onboard a helicopter. She credits wearing a helmet with saving her life after she was thrown from a horse

Witnesses said the horse became spooked by a lawnmower and bolted, throwing Grimshaw from the saddle.

She landed heavily on her head and was unconscious for about 15 minutes, before a helicopter arrived and flew her to Westmead Hospital. 

Grimshaw was discharged from hospital the following morning and went on to host A Current Affair for another seven years, before announcing on September 5 that her time at the show was coming to an end.

On Monday, she said she had been riding horses all her adult life and ‘It’s just a shame that one prang became known nationally. I wish it hadn’t.

‘I’ve literally ridden horses for, I don’t know, 40 years, and all I get asked about is a prang. It’s not anything I think about. It’s unfortunate it happened, I still have the horse, I still ride.’ 

Everyday lives 

Over the years, Grimshaw has not only interviewed the rich and famous such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Celine Dion and Sharon Stone, but has also told the stories of everyday people.

She can’t pick one interview that stood out above the others, though. ‘It’s almost like being asked to choose your favourite child,’ she said.

‘They all have an impact. The interviews that mostly have an impact, and pretty much all of them do, are people who find themselves in these extraordinary circumstances.

‘They are just ordinary people, plodding along, living their lives like we all do, doing normal stuff every day,’ she told Channel 9.

Todd Russell (left) and Brant Webb (right), survivors of the Beaconsfield mine collapse where they spent two weeks trapped nearly a kilometre underground, were interviewed by Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair

Todd Russell (left) and Brant Webb (right), survivors of the Beaconsfield mine collapse where they spent two weeks trapped nearly a kilometre underground, were interviewed by Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair

Todd Russell (pictured) was more than 900 metres underground when an earthquake caused a collapse in the mine, trapping him and his colleague Brant Webb. The pair were underground for 14 days before finally walking free in the early hours of May 9, 2006

Todd Russell (pictured) was more than 900 metres underground when an earthquake caused a collapse in the mine, trapping him and his colleague Brant Webb. The pair were underground for 14 days before finally walking free in the early hours of May 9, 2006

One of those ordinary people stories was covering the 2006 Beaconsfield mine collapse.

‘I spent two weeks when those two boys were underground and I didn’t even know those two boys (Brant Webb and Todd Russell),’ she said.

‘And every single night I’d go to bed thinking “they’re looking at the same rock wall, it’s another day underground”, how would I be?

‘I would be a dribbling mess by now. I don’t even know how they’re holding it together. And in the end I was able to ask them. So that’s pretty special.’

Grimshaw’s many fans will long remember her as ‘pretty special’ too. 

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