Jarryd Hayne: Life and times of former NRL and NFL player
Jarryd Hayne’s rise to the top of multiple football codes is truly a remarkable tale. His fall is just as gripping. SPECIAL REPORT
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He could have been anything, and on the footy field was most things.
Entertainer, blessed talent, polarising figure, cult hero, arch enemy, enigma.
Jarryd Hayne’s rise to the top of multiple football codes is truly a remarkable tale.
His fall is just as gripping. On April 4, 2023 Hayne was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home almost five years earlier.
On May 12, 2023 — after five years and three trials — Hayne was sentenced to a maximum aggregate of four years and nine months, but it was backdated to May 7, 2022.
However there was another twist on June 12, 2024 when he successfully overturned his convictions after an appeal in the state’s highest court.
Hayne claims the sexual encounter was entirely consensual, and the 36-year-old has continued to maintain his innocence and quickly launched an appeal against his conviction in the NSW Supreme Court.
This is how Hayne overcame the odds from the start to make it big, before his world came crashing down in recent years.
EARLY LIFE
Jarryd Lee Hayne was born in Sydney on February 15, 1988 to Fiji-born father Manoa Thompson and mother Jodie.
Rugby league was always on the cards for Hayne given his dad played 75 NRL matches for South Sydney, Western Suburbs and Auckland between 1989 and 1995.
Ultimately Hayne and his two younger sisters – Jessi-Lee and Taygan – were raised by his single mother in their red-brick Campbelltown housing-commission houses in Minto and Airds.
“When we lived in Airds, it was tough,” Jodie said in 2009.
“Because I was a young mother and had a half-caste child, people would look down at me. That was 20 years ago. Even the Islanders would give me filthy look. People would ask me if Jarryd was adopted.
“I didn’t care. As long as I was there for him, that was my thing.”
A natural athlete, Hayne was an early star in athletics and, while attending John Warby Public School, Leumeah High and Westfields Sports High School, notched a string of underage school sport records.
However such was his passion for rugby league he dropped out of high school to pursue a professional career.
Dad Thompson, whose career took him overseas, remained an influence on his son’s footy journey.
“My advice to him has always been that you will get out of the game what you put into it,” he said in 2009.
“He was born with a special gift and he should make the most of it. You play to a certain age and then you have to look after yourself.”
Kevin Wise, the man who first signed Hayne in the lounge room of his famous father Manoa Thompson’s home to a Parramatta contract worth $1000, opened up about what the young prodigy was like.
“I had a lot to do with Jarryd moving out of Minto and into home accommodation at Parramatta,’’ Wise said in 2021.
“I got a whisper that he was running the streets, nothing bad, just teenage boys out late at night, so I went out to see his mother and grandmother.
“I said: ‘I want to move him into Parramatta and I’ll get him a job. I don’t want you to feel like we’re taking him away from you, but I can keep an eye on him’.’’
At 16, Hayne moved with Wise to Parramatta on the condition that in between football training and any school work, the young star earned a greenkeeper traineeship.
MAKING A NAME IN FOOTY
Before the $1000 Eels deal arrived, Hayne had starred in the junior ranks for Campbelltown City, East Campbelltown and Cabramatta.
Clearly, bigger things awaited, as noticed by long-serving Eels talent guru Wise.
“I rate him so close to Brett Kenny, it’s not funny,’’ he said matter-of-factly in 2021.
“Brett Kenny they called ‘The Natural’ – and that’s exactly what Jarryd was. Just natural.
“Seeing the things that Brett did for so long, I thought he was the best, but individually he (Hayne) could dominate a game just as much.’’
Spotted as a 15-year-old playing at the 2002 Australian Schoolboy championships in Cabramatta, Hayne simply “did something I just didn’t think was possible”.
“He had moved to five-eighth, he was 40m out from the opposition tryline and he put up a bomb,” Wise recalled.
“Remember he was only 15.
“And yet he ran through, leapt above the goal line, right beside the post, flew over the top of everyone else and scored the try.
“I thought; “That is just unbelievable. But then I started to watch him really close.
“Everything he did, it didn’t matter where it was on the field, he was always capable of anything.’’
Wise made the decision there and then to sign Hayne.
“I caught up with his dad, Manoa (Thompson) and said we were interested in signing him,’’ Wise said.
“I don’t think anyone else was really interested at all. I wasn’t aware of anyone else that wanted to sign him.
“I signed him to a $1000 contract with some incentives if he played junior representative footy.’’
CRACKING THE BIG TIME
With fast feet and deft hands in the Eels’ lower grades, Hayne was a NRL player. He just needed a chance.
That would come when Brian Smith was sacked in 2006, with Jason Taylor replacing him as Parramatta coach.
Taylor’s first action was to promote 18-year-old Hayne on to the wing for the showdown with Penrith at CUA Stadium in May.
“I wanted to change some things up and that was one of the first things I did, I put him on the wing,” Taylor said.
“Everyone knew (his talent), it wasn’t just me.
“Smithy knew what a talent he was as well, he was just trying to do the right thing by him in regards to bringing him through in a controlled fashion.
“Anyone who thinks Brian Smith doesn’t know how good he was is off the mark, he was just trying to manage it in the right way.
“Brian had a lot more experience than me. I just threw him in there.”
By the end of the season Hayne had 17 tries in 16 games – including bagging four against the Knights – and was duly named Dally M Rookie of the Year.
The accolades kept coming in the following seasons as Hayne switched from centre to fullback permanently.
However 2009 was truly his coming of age.
As the Eels made a late-season surge, Hayne claimed six consecutive man of the match awards from Rounds 19 to 24 in a streak regarded as one of the best ever in rugby league.
That campaign ultimately delivered Hayne the Dally M medal, Dally M fullback of the year, NSW player of the Origin series, international player of the year, Parramatta player of the season, Fiji player of the year and Rugby League Week player of the year.
Over the coming seasons he became a NSW and Australian Test regular, also becoming Eels co-captain in 2013.
In September 2013 he claimed his second Dally M Medal, this time a joint winner with
Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston in a thrilling countdown.
Even more sporting drama awaited.
EYEING THE NFL
Hayne had understandably been in the sights of rival codes for years.
In 2009 it was reported that new AFL club GWS Giants had offered Hayne a deal.
Rugby union, too, had come calling at various times.
However the lure of American football always remained.
Hayne had intended to quit the NRL in 2011 in order to chase his NFL dream, however his failure to finish Year 12 meant he was ineligible to join an American college.
The dream did not end there, however.
In 2014 NFL star and future 49ers teammate Reggie Bush hailed Hayne after watching his highlights reel.
“He actually looks like an NFL running back. Looks like he could come play with us tomorrow,” he said.
The switch was confirmed in October 2014.
By March 2015 San Francisco announced a three-year deal with the undrafted free agent, who impressed teammates early.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick labelled him “a phenomenal athlete”.
After an impressive start, Hayne made the final 53-man cut and made his NFL debut in September 2015 against the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s when things changed. Hayne’s life turned on a miskick.
In what was meant to be his first ever touch in the NFL, Hayne was no chance of reaching the ball. Much less catching it.
Yet still, it burst the bubble anyway.
“But that’s the moment everything changed,” agreed Colin Scotts, Sydney’s inaugural inductee to the Big Show via the 1987 NFL Draft.
“First touch, everyone watching, and Jarryd faulted big time.
“From that moment, it became a trust issue. … It was the cruellest of sliding doors moments.”
Hayne announced his departure from the NFL in May 2016, joining the Fiji sevens team in a bid to make the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Hayne played in a series of warm-up games and made the initial 23-man training squad but did not make the final cut.
RETURN TO NRL
Amid much hype in 2016, Hayne and the Gold Coast Titans stitched up a two-year deal at a kitchen bench and within a matter of hours.
“We thought we were just having a meet and greet and within a matter of seven or eight hours from the time of meeting at (club co-owner Rebecca Frizelle’s) house, we’d signed a contract and put in place a plan to announce it the next morning,’’ one of the Titans’ powerbrokers said in 2021.
“That first day that we ever met him, is the day that we signed him.’’
An initial spike in crowds and merchandise did not last.
A feud with Neil Henry throughout the 2017 season led to club officials essentially confirming either the coach or the player would soon be chopped.
“Neil liked players who conformed … and well, Jarryd sometimes didn’t do that,’’ a Titans staff member said in 2021.
“Everything that the Titans and Jarryd had to start with was going off the rails.’’
Henry was axed in August 2017, while Hayne would leave on November 30 in a messy end to a relationship that started with much hope.
EELS REUNION
On December 1, 2017 Hayne confirmed his return to Parramatta.
It was like he never left. Hayne played his 200th NRL game in his first match back in March 2018.
In a stop-start campaign he finished with 10 tries from 15 matches, though the Eels slumped to last place.
Hayne insisted he was keen on extending his stay but amid a backdrop of off-field issues, he wasn’t re-signed for 2019.
PERSONAL LIFE
The image of Hayne with his loyal mother Jodie beside him when collecting the 2009 Dally M medal is an enduring one.
“I feel like crying,” an emotional Hayne said in 2009.
“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. My mum, my rock, the Fijian World Cup team – if I’m not in that team I’m not here.”
In 2009 Jodie expressed her pride in Hayne’s ascent from humble beginnings.
“From the days when people would look down their nose at me because I was a single mother with a half-caste child,” she said.
“And that just made me prouder and stronger.”
Though the close bonds with family remained, in 2021 it was highlighted that few truly knew what Hayne was like away from the spotlight.
The stories from ex-coaches and teammates are of how Hayne walked to the beat of his own drum.
It wasn’t all Hayne’s doing. On his rise to super-stardom in 2009, the Parramatta staff members nicknamed Hayne, ‘The Champ’.
Around the footy club, it provided Hayne with the platform to roll through seasons largely as he pleased. Hayne quickly made everyone around him understand that Jarryd would perform, on Jarryd’s time.
He was often described as a ‘lazy’ trainer even by his closest of teammates and illustrated his dislike for heavy workout sessions by often turning-up in the wrong training gear.
At the Titans in 2017, he was fined by the senior playing group for his attitude towards training.
Away from the spotlight he remained a devout Christian, becoming a member of the Hillsong Church in 2008, partly inspired by his Fijian teammates.
In 2016 he met his wife Amellia Bonnici after he had returned from his stint with the San Francisco 49ers.
Hayne has daughter Beliviah Ivy with Bonnici and they were married in a private ceremony on Australia Day in January 2021.
Mum Jodie in 2009 spoke of Hayne’s beliefs.
“I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he said we had to have a prayer before lunch,” she said.
“I had no problem with that. He goes, `Mum, a prayer …’ Then he asks, `When are you coming to church?’ I said, `Take your sisters. I’ll go when I’m ready’. If he enjoys it, I’m rapped. I’m glad he’s found something outside of football.”
CONTROVERSIES
Meeting with alleged bikies
In September 2016 Hayne broke his silence over a video appearing to show him give a $5000 wad of cash to an alleged Hells Angels bikie.
Hayne at the time denied being friends with a notorious bikie after being caught on camera appearing to give Chris Bloomfield $5000 in cash — saying he had been stitched up.
The then-Gold Coast Titan said he was the victim of a “prank” and denied having any relationship with Bloomfield who claimed they were mates.
The accused Hells Angel standover man’s lawyer also said he believed the pair were good friends.
The video showed Bloomfield holding a huge wad of banknotes and saying: “Haynsey just gave me five grand!”
The former NSW Origin star then shrugged and said: “Cash money, fam! Cash money!”
Hayne said he had never met Bloomfield before that day when he was on a boozy night out with “a group of players and friends” and crossed paths with the bikie.
“As any human would do, I said hello to those I came into contact with and was friendly as normal,” he said.
Pornographic images at school
Hayne was in December 2016 forced to deny images that appeared on his laptop during a presentation at a Gold Coast school were his.
Hayne was forced to offer an explanation after the lewd pictures appeared on a screen during a presentation on cyber security to Robina State High School students.
7 News at 6pm: @JarrydHayne embroiled in an embarrassing mix-up involving pornographic images. https://t.co/lxZ2CYDjxF#7Newspic.twitter.com/7og29pGGod
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) November 7, 2016
The images were beamed into an auditorium as the Titan showed some of the contents of his phone to more than 200 children.
He was giving the presentation on behalf of Norton Security, one of his sponsors.
A spokesman for the company later claimed an unknown person connected to the non-password protected Wi-Fi network to “inject unwanted materials” into Hayne’s presentation.
In the video the MC is overheard detailing what appears to be Norton software to the schoolchildren before the blunder.
“Jarryd, you’ve been doing some browsing I can see,” the MC says.
Hayne later told reporters he was as shocked as anyone when images of lewd acts and a topless woman appeared on the screen.
“It was (awkward). I shut my phone straight away so that way I was logged off. Wow,” he said.
Origin no-pass
Many Blues fans still blame Hayne for costing the state the 2017 Origin series.
After helping NSW to victory in game one, Hayne scored a try in the first half as his side raced out to a 16–6 lead.
However just before the break Hayne had the chance to put winger Brett Morris over for a try in the corner to make it 20-6.
He instead went himself and was tackled short of the line.
This was considered a turning point as Queensland stormed home to win 18-16, before a 22-6 win in the decider.
Former Maroons coach Wayne Bennett slammed Hayne’s decision after the match.
“For Jarryd Hayne, there’s no excuses for why he didn’t pass the ball to Morris,” he said.
Kings Cross shooting
In March 2008 Hayne and Dragons player Mark Gasnier were on a night out when a fight broke out between them and another group.
Hayne and Gasnier were later shot at by a gunman in a passing taxi.
In 2021 new details emerged about the then 20-year-old Hayne and the night he stepped out at a Kings Cross hotel.
Drinking alongside Hayne was Gasnier, and former Parramatta teammates Junior Paulo and Weller Hauraki.
After playing in a Saturday pre-season trial match for the Eels against the Sydney Roosters, Hayne slept for the majority of the Sunday before taking the first sip of a drink with the other Eels players around 11pm at a bar at the red light capital of Australia, Kings Cross.
Despite the wooziness of a few drinks, Gasnier was still wise enough to read the room and sense what would soon escalate after a man hurled a punch at him at the bar.
The Dragons star fled to a taxi and Hayne quickly followed.
But just as the taxi was about to roll, the superstar Eel jumped back out of the cab — letting Gasnier to drive away into the night.
Reports at the time told how Hayne, Paulo and Hauraki then confronted a man outside McDonald’s on Darlinghurst Rd just before 4am.
“The Parra players went out for a feed at Maccas later on and recognised the same guy that had a go at Gaz (Gasnier),’’ a source said.
The man retreated when approached by the imposing trio of footballers, but soon returned with deadly force in mind.
As Hayne, Hauraki and Paulo were attempting to catch a cab on nearby Ward Ave, the man stepped from a car and fired a single shot in their direction.
“It was crazy,’’ Hayne told in his only interview at the time.
“There was this loud bang and I freaked out. All of us were stunned by the noise and then we realised, ‘hang on a sec, that was a gunshot.”
Mum Jodie in 2009 spoke of the incident.
“The Kings Cross shooting really woke him up. I didn’t realise how much it affected him,” she said.
“He’s matured so much. I think the lifestyle he’s got with rugby league, all the scandals that have happened this season … I think he’s realised how quick you can lose it.”
Diving accusations
Hayne’s actions on the field were thrust into the spotlight in July 2007 when he was accused of diving following a hit from Brisbane’s Sam Thaiday.
Broncos coach Wayne Bennett took aim at Hayne.
“You talk about ethics in our sport. You talk about not laying on the ground,” he said.
Hayne denied he dived to halt Brisbane’s momentum and claimed that he was genuinely hurt from the collision with Thaiday.
Hayne was again accused of diving in the 2007 grand final qualifier when he stayed down and received a penalty for a high shot.
Rivals were left filthy over the incident.
“To lay down like he did and then get up and wink, I don’t think that’s in the spirit of the game,” Newcastle’s Clint Newton said.
“Straight after he got up, he winked at Dallas Johnson – facing us.”
Hayne again defended himself: “I don’t engage in that shit, I just score tries and make people happy.”
Hayne’s ‘dream’
At first Hayne was hailed for his willingness to follow a “dream”.
After a handful of them, however, he simply became a series of memes.
First he spoke of his NFL dream. Then his sevens dream. Then his return to Eels dream.
After years of copping the jibes Hayne in 2018 called one punter “pathetic” for his joke about the matter.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to be on the judiciary panel,” the Twitter user posted in response to Hayne’s call that the panel was right to clear Billy Slater for the grand final.
Hayne responded.
“My next dream would be for w***ers like you to grow tf up,” he tweeted.
“And to think you got 3kids that one day will dare to dream makes your tweet even more pathetic.”
My next dream would be for wankers like you to grow tf up. And to think you got 3kids that one day will dare to dream makes your tweet even more pathetic. https://t.co/mwQ8AP1bXx
— jarryd hayne (@JarrydHayne) September 25, 2018
At the peak of his popularity Hayne in 2015 created a personal logo he believed “represents me and my journey” – by aligning himself with the peregrine falcon of Fiji.
“The Fijian falcon is extremely rare,’’ Hayne explained. “It’s also said to be the fastest bird anywhere in the world.
“And both of those traits, they appeal to me.
“I want people to look at this design and see me, see my journey. I also hope it encourages them to step out of their own comfort zone and chase whatever it is in life they desire.”
LEGAL ISSUES
US allegation
Hayne was in 2015 accused of sexual assault by a woman known only as “JV”.
The woman claimed she was a virgin and heavily intoxicated when she met then-49ers player Hayne at a San Jose bar.
The woman alleged that Hayne went back to her home before sexually assaulting her.
Police investigated the incident but decided not to charge Hayne.
The woman in December 2017 filed a civil lawsuit against Hayne.
In August 2019 Hayne settled the suit, paying almost $100,000 to the alleged victim.
Newcastle incident
In April 2023 Hayne was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home almost five years earlier.
After more than six days of deliberating, a jury on April 4 found the two-time Dally M winner and ex-NFL convert guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
Following an 11-day trial in Sydney’s JMT District Court, the jury of six men and six women declared their verdict and convicted Hayne.
The then 35-year-old had walked into the John Madison Tower building in Sydney‘s CBD every day with his wife Amelia Bonnici beside him, his mother, sisters and friends supporting him from the front row of the public gallery.
Hayne pleaded not guilty and denied sexually assaulting the then 26-year-old woman at her home at Fletcher, on Newcastle’s outskirts, in September, 2018.
His first trial in Newcastle in 2020 ended in a hung jury, while he was convicted at a second trial in March 2021 and sent to prison for nine months until he successfully appealed the decision.
This jury, who heard fresh evidence from a man the victim texted on the same day, agreed with the prior jury and found Hayne guilty of performing oral and digital sex on the woman without her consent.
On May 12, 2023 Hayne was sentenced to four years and nine months in jail, which was backdated to May 7, 2022.
However in June 2024 he successfully overturned his convictions after an appeal in the state’s highest court.
Hayne claims the sexual encounter was entirely consensual, but the jury accepted the woman’s version of events that she repeatedly said “no” and “stop” and was left bleeding after he pulled her pants off.
The 36-year-old has continued to maintain his innocence and quickly launched an appeal against his conviction in the NSW Supreme Court.
The former Eels fullback appeared via audiovisual link in the NSW Supreme Court wearing a prison-issued green tracksuit and a weary expression as he waited to learn the outcome of his appeal.
Justice Stephen Rothman upheld the appeal on two of the three grounds argued by Hayne’s defence team.
Hayne’s appeal relied on three grounds – the first being the verdicts were unreasonable and not supported by evidence at trial, secondly, the trial judge erred in ruling the complainant did not have to give evidence about a 2021 interaction with a person she messaged the same day the jury found she was sexually assaulted in 2018, and lastly, that the judge’s ruling resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
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