Liz Hayes has been married to her current husband Ben Crane since the 2000s after her failed marriages to her ex-spouses; Brian Hayes, John Singleton, and Stephen Coogan. Details.
Liz Hayes is one of Australia’s most successful journalists and television presenters, boasting a career spanning four decades.
In 1986, Hayes was appointed co-host of the Australian TV program, Today with Steve Liebmann where she stayed as co-host until 1996 when Tracy Grimshaw replaced her.
In 1996, she joined 60 Minutes as a correspondent and remains in this position today. In 2021, Hayes celebrated 40 years with the Nine Network.
Liz, who is private about her personal life has been married more than two times and often makes the news for her love life.
Here’s everything we know about the television personality and her current and ex-spouses.
Who is Liz Hayes married to?
The television personality has been married three times and is in her fourth marriage.
Hayes met and married her first husband, builder Brian Hayes, in her hometown 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 split in 1997.
She has married Ben Crane, a former 60 Minutes soundman, since the early 2000s.
Who is Ben Crane, Liz Hayes’ current husband?
Australian reporter Liz Hayes is currently on her fourth marriage to Ben Crane.
Hayes and Ben Crane have been together for more than two decades. They have been married since the early 2000s.
However, details about the couple’s marriage, including how they met, where and when they held their wedding, and exactly how long they’ve been together, have not been documented.
The two are notoriously private and are rarely seen in public together.
While not much is known about their relationship, Ben Crane is a former sound recordist on 60 Minutes.
They are rarely seen in public together, nor does Liz talk about him in the media.
Speaking with Stellar Magazine, Liz shared that she values her privacy and finds the coverage about her love life, especially her past marriages, “soul-destroying.”
“You could go knock on everybody’s door and say, ‘Well, can I give you a bit of backstory?’ You can’t do that, so you just have to accept that that’s the deal,” she said.
“But frankly, it’s a bit soul-destroying to have seemingly the world telling you, ‘Yep, you’re a dud.’
“It’s hard. I defy anybody, and those people who write those stories, to sit there and hear and see that written about them.”
Who are Lis Hayes’ ex-husbands; Brian Hayes, John Singleton, and Stephen Coogan?
Liz Hayes has been married three times before Ben Crane.
She married her first husband, builder Brian Hayes, in the 70s when she was just 21 years old.
Liz and Brain first met in her hometown of Taree.
Brain Hayes is a builder by profession.
They split in the 1980s when her career in Sydney took off.
Despite being divorced from Brian Hayes, she still uses his surname as her professional name.
In February 1991, she wed entrepreneur John Singleton, but they parted ways in December of that same year.
Despite the failed marriage, the two remain close friends to this day.
For starters, John Singleton is an Australian entrepreneur who built his success and wealth in the advertising business in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. He now has diverse investment interests in radio broadcasting, publishing, and thoroughbred breeding and racing.
In September 1998, a man who had quietly stalked her for ten years agreed not to approach her.
Liz’s third husband is Doctor Stephen Coogan, whom she married in 1994.
They called it quits three years later.
Veteran journalist Liz Hayes reveals her real name – and why she ‘grieves’ the loss of her former identity: ‘It’s peculiar’
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 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.
‘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.
Did Liz Hayes date Bob Hawke?
In the same interview with Stella Magazine, the veteran journalist claimed that the late Prime Minister Bob Hawke tried to woo her on multiple occasions.
Per Liz, her encounter with Hawke came when she was single following her divorce from Australian businessman, John Singleton.
Per her, the politician phoned Hayes to propose a weekend away on the Gold Coast.
‘I just found it extraordinary that somebody I had come to know via my then-husband was ringing me up and asking me out. Really? And not once, but twice,’ she said.
‘I thought, well, what is it about me that makes him think that’s OK? That worried me. Why do I look like somebody you could just ring up and say, “Hey, how about we get on the jet and go to the Gold Coast with my mates?”‘
The beloved 60 Minutes star wondered what ‘pheromones’ she was putting that made Hawke ask her out twice, but conceded that the former Prime Minister was ‘absolutely brilliant’ and never mistreated her.
The journalist said she didn’t take the Prime Minister up on his offer.
‘I never saw any bad behaviour towards me at all. So then to have this was like, oh my God, what’s that about? Anyway, I didn’t go’ she said.