Sport reporter and model Grace Hayden’s sliding doors moment happened when she was 19. In 2022, during her time studying occupational therapy at university, Hayden was asked to be a fashion ambassador for Oaks Day at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane.
In turn, the way she conducted interviews and held herself caught the attention of Seven Network executives.
“They were interviewing for a job as a roving fashion reporter in Melbourne for the races carnival,” Hayden tells Stellar.
“I went through the whole interview process. I was up against six other girls. They said to me, ‘You know what? We’re going to take a risk and we’re going to go with a girl that’s green, and throw you in the deep end.’”
What producers soon discovered was that Hayden wasn’t as green as they may have anticipated.
Being the daughter of Australian cricketing great Matthew Hayden, she “was in front of the camera so much alongside Dad,” she recalls of her childhood.
“It wasn’t something that was foreign to me. While my brothers and my mum absolutely hated that life, Mum and Dad knew that I just loved it.”
Her early experience in the world of racing ultimately led Hayden, 24, to commentating gigs across a range of different sports.
She has since worked in cricket, covering the Big Bash League and IPL in India. But she has also covered motorsports, tennis, and added the NRL to her resume when she joined Fox League as a sideline reporter in July.
“I really wanted to have this year of yes,” she says. “This year has been a really big growing year – just stepping out on a limb and embracing what life throws at me.”
There are, of course, naysayers who carp that Hayden has only achieved what she has because of her famous surname.
“People want to throw in whatever they want to throw at me. But I definitely know I do the work. I do the hard yards and it’s a lot of research,” Hayden tells Stellar.
“I came into this life being Matthew Hayden’s daughter.
“I definitely wrestled with it when I was younger when people would say I only made a sports team because I was ‘Matthew Hayden’s daughter’ or I only did something because I was ‘Matthew Hayden’s daughter’.
“But I got really good advice from someone who said, ‘You need to learn to embrace that, because you are proud of it.’
“And at the end of the day, I’m so proud of my dad and mum, for what they’ve achieved together.”
One key lesson she says she learnt from her father, who played 103 Test matches for Australia, is the importance of surrounding herself with the right people.
“I have an amazing partner,” she says of business executive boyfriend Wilson Statham.
“Your friends know who you are, your family knows who you are, your partner knows who you are,” she explains.
“And they’re going to tell you hard things, they’re going to tell you great things. But they know you to your core and I’ve always sort of stuck by that. My partner is one of those people for me.”
When she’s not in front of the camera, Hayden is embracing a quieter life on her farm with Statham in the northern NSW town of Moree.
Having grown up on her family’s own farm in Brisbane – where she was more than happy to get her hands dirty – a rural retreat is something she still craves.
“It’s a reset that I need,” she explains.
“We’ve now got a new puppy, little Winston, who’s just been such a bundle of joy. I just could go completely off-grid and enjoy the simple things.
“We’ve got a little garden that we replanted on this weekend. So we’re getting into our gardening era.” As she jokes, she’s living a true Hannah Montana life: “I’ve got the best of both worlds.”
Now Hayden’s career has come full-circle from that sliding doors moment four years ago, having been tapped to become an ambassador for the Australian Turf Club’s Sydney Everest Carnival.
“The races are such an amazing space where you can get dressed up and you can be really creative,” she explains.
“I love the fact that there’s themes on a race day, so you can really bring your own personal style to racing flair, too.”
Hayden will be in attendance at the TAB Everest Day on October 17 as the race – which boasts a $20 million total prize pool – celebrates its 10th anniversary.
“It is unlike anything else. It’s pretty extraordinary,” she says of the event, adding, “My adult life is honestly a dream come true. Little baby Gracie would be screaming, knowing all of the things that I’ve been lucky enough to achieve and do in my career.
“And I feel like I’m just getting started.”
For information and to book tickets for Sydney Everest Carnival, visit theraces.com.au
See the full cover shoot with Grace Hayden in a new issue of Stellar inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
