She’s one of Australia’s most successful journalists and television presenters, boasting a career spanning four decades.
But Liz Hayes has lifted the lid on her lesser-known identity as the daughter of a dairy farmer and a housewife from region New South Wales.
Speaking to Stellar magazine over the weekend, the 67-year-old said she was born with the name Elizabeth Ryan, and grew up being known as Beth.
‘I grieve Beth Ryan, because I quite like Beth Ryan. Liz Hayes is who I’ve become. I was born Elizabeth Ryan,’ the 60 Minutes veteran said.
Liz took the name of her first husband Bryan Hayes and has kept it as her professional name ever since.
Liz Hayes, 67, born Elizabeth Ryan, has lifted the lid on her lesser-known identity as the daughter of a dairy farmer and a housewife from region New South Wales
‘When I hear someone say, ‘Hi, Beth’ I know they’re in my soul. When I realised, oh, I’m now Liz Hayes… that’s a very odd moment. It’s peculiar,’ she admitted.
Liz reflected on what it was like to refer to herself as Beth Ryan while writing her upcoming autobiography I’m Liz Hayes: A Memoir.
‘Writing this book and writing ‘Beth Ryan’, I hear my dad, my brothers. I’m not Liz Hayes. To this day, I’m Beth. It was only when reading the book that I went back and realised how big a deal it was to let go of that,’ she said.
Liz reflected on what it was like to refer to herself as Beth Ryan while writing her upcoming autobiography I’m Liz Hayes: A Memoir. (Pictured in 1989 on The Today Show)
Hayes met and married her first husband, builder Brian Hayes, in her home town of Taree, but the two later split.
The journalist was subsequently married to Australian advertising entrepreneur John Singleton between 1991 and 1992.
Liz secretly married Sydney doctor Stephen Coogan in 1994 and they split in 1997.
‘I grieve Beth Ryan, because I quite like Beth Ryan. Liz Hayes is who I’ve become. I was born Elizabeth Ryan,’ the 60 Minutes veteran said
She has been married to Ben Crane, a former 60 Minutes soundman, since the early 2000s.
In a 2014 interview, Hayes, who has no children, said that speculation that she placed her career before motherhood was ‘unkind’.
‘There is a lot of presumption about people who don’t have children and invariably the presumption is wrong,’ Hayes told The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Unkind things are said to some women about not having children. Why do we hammer other women, our sisters, about those kinds of areas, which are deeply personal and horribly difficult for some?’
‘When I hear someone say, ‘Hi, Beth’ I know they’re in my soul. When I realised, oh, I’m now Liz Hayes… that’s a very odd moment. It’s peculiar,’ she admitted
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