Liz Hayes back in the Spotlight on Seven

Two months after spectacularly calling time on 44 years at Channel 9, veteran broadcaster Liz Hayes will join Seven’s flagship current affairs show Spotlight.

Two months after spectacularly calling time on 44 years at Channel 9, veteran broadcaster Liz Hayes will join Seven’s flagship current affairs show Spotlight.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the award-winning journalist is currently filming her first assignment as guest correspondent for the program, an exclusive sit down with the widow of TV chef Jock Zonfrillo.

When contacted, a statement from Spotlight executive producer Gemma Williams read: “We’re privileged to welcome Liz Hayes to 7NEWS Spotlight as a guest correspondent. Widely respected for her decades of experience, storytelling expertise and journalistic integrity, we look forward to collaborating with Liz on this special project.”

Hayes is midway through shooting the Spotlight special with Lauren Zonfrillo about her husband, the MasterChef Australia judge who was found dead in his Melbourne hotel room in 2023.

Veteran reporter Liz Hayes will join Seven’s flagship current affairs show Spotlight.

The episode will air over the coming weeks.

In February, Hayes made the shock announcement that she was departing Nine with the broadcaster then indicating she would “remain part of the Nine family” and “viewers can expect to see her on their screens for special stories and events”.

At the time, Hayes said: “I made that decision (to leave Nine) last year because I felt it was time to move to the beat of a different drum, my own. I have had the most extraordinary life telling wonderful stories working with brilliant people and an audience that, thank you, you have hung in there with me. And I am hoping that you will still hang around because I am not going anywhere. I am still passionate about telling stories and I plan to tell many more. So this is not goodbye, this is the beginning of what I see as a great new and exciting chapter in my life. I hope you come along for the ride.”

News of the 68-year-old’s gig for Spotlight is a major coup for Seven and a big blow for Nine given her status as one of the most well-regarded television journalists in the business.

Hayes started at Nine in 1981 as a reporter and went on to present the morning bulletin.

She worked across many prime time shows and has a Logie Award to her name for her documentary, The Greatest Gift.

Hayes recently left Nine after 44 years with the network.

In 1986, she began co-hosting Today with Steve Liebmann.

A decade later, Hayes joined 60 Minutes, where she has covered everything from US presidential elections to natural disasters and wars.

Also on the immediate horizon for Hayes is a new book she has written about outback astronomer Trevor Barry.

Hayes was born in Taree, NSW, and got her start in journalism as a cadet at the local Manning River Times newspaper.

She has been married twice, including to Australian media identity John Singleton.

Hayes is known to be very private about her personal life, although shared her story in the best selling book, I’m Liz Hayes, A Memoir, in 2023.