She is one of Australia’s most successful journalists and TV presenters, with a career spanning four decades.
But Liz Hayes has lifted the lid on her lesser-known identity as the daughter of a New South Wales dairy farmer and housewife.
Speak with Stellar magazine, the 67-year-old said she was born Elizabeth Ryan and grew up going by the name Beth.
“I’m grieving for Beth Ryan because I quite like Beth Ryan. Liz Hayes is who I have become. I was born Elizabeth Ryan,” the 60 Minutes veteran said.
Liz took the name from 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 New South Wales dairy farmer and homemaker
“When I hear someone say, ‘Hello, Beth,’ I know they are in my soul. When I realized, oh, I’m Liz Hayes now… that was a very strange moment. It’s strange,” she admitted.
Liz reflected on what it was like to call herself Beth Ryan while writing her upcoming autobiography I’m Liz Hayes: A Memoir.
“As I write this book and write ‘Beth Ryan,’ I hear my father, my brothers. I’m not Liz Hayes. To this day, I am Beth. It wasn’t until I read the book that I went back and realized how important it was to let that go,” she said.
Liz reflected on what it was like to call herself 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 hometown of Taree, but the two later separated.
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 separated in 1997.
“I’m grieving for Beth Ryan because I quite like Beth Ryan. Liz Hayes is who I have become. I was born Elizabeth Ryan,” the 60 Minutes veteran said
She has been married to Ben Crane, a former 60 Minutes sound engineer, since the early 2000s.
In a 2014 interview, Hayes, who has no children, 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?’
“When I hear someone say, ‘Hello, Beth,’ I know they are in my soul. When I realized, oh, I’m Liz Hayes now… that was a very strange moment. It’s strange,” she admitted