Veteran journalist Liz Hayes reveals she was wooed several times by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke: ‘I just thought it was extraordinary’
Veteran journalist Liz Hayes has claimed that the late Prime Minister Bob Hawke tried to woo her several times.
The journalist, 67, made the revelations in an extensive interview with Stellar magazine of the weekend.
In 1991, shortly after her marriage to entrepreneur John Singleton (and Hawke’s premiership) ended, the politician called Hayes with a proposal for a weekend away on the Gold Coast.
‘I just thought it was special that someone I had met through my then husband called me and asked me out. Real? And not once, but twice,” she said.
“I thought, what is it about me that makes him think that’s OK? That worried me. Why do I look like someone you could just call and say, “Hey, how about I get on a plane and go to the Gold Coast with my friends?”
Liz Hayes (pictured) has claimed that the late Prime Minister Bob Hawke tried to woo her several times. The journalist, 67, made the revelations this weekend in an extensive interview with Stellar magazine (pictured).
In 1991, shortly after her marriage to entrepreneur John Singleton (and Hawke’s premiership) ended, the politician called Hayes with a proposal for a weekend away on the Gold Coast. Pictured: Bob Hawke
The much-loved 60 Minutes star questioned which ‘pheromones’ she was using that caused Hawke to ask her out twice, but admitted the former Prime Minister was ‘absolutely brilliant’ and never abused her.
Despite his talents and her new single status at the time, the journalist said she did not take the Prime Minister up on his offer.
“I have never seen any bad behavior towards me. So when I got this I thought, oh my God, what is that about? Anyway, I didn’t go,” she said.
Hayes met and married her first husband, builder Brian Hayes, in her hometown of Taree, but the two later separated.
‘I just thought it was special that someone I had met through my then husband called me and asked me out. Real? And not once, but twice,” she said
The much-loved 60 Minutes star questioned which ‘pheromones’ she was using that caused Hawke to ask her out twice, but admitted the former Prime Minister was ‘absolutely brilliant’ and never abused her
The journalist was subsequently married to Australian advertising entrepreneur John Singleton between 1991 and 1992.
She has been married to Ben Crane, a former 60 Minutes sound engineer, since the early 2000s.
In a 2014 interview, Hayes, who is childless, said speculation that she was putting her career ahead of motherhood was “unkind.”
“There are a lot of assumptions about people who don’t have children, and those assumptions are invariably wrong,” Hayes said. The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Unkind things are said to some women about not having children. Why do we hammer other women, our sisters, in these kinds of areas, which are very personal and terribly difficult for some?’
Read more in Stellar Magazine