High Steaks: A sliding doors moment changed the life of The Chase’s Governess, Anne Hegerty

Anne Hegerty of The Chase always wanted to be famous, but she never thought she would be known and celebrated for the same thing she was picked on for when she was young – her brain.

Anne Hegerty is The Governess on The Chase.

As much as it might be uncomfortable or crass to admit, Anne Hegerty always wanted to be famous.

“It’s an odd thing to want and I always felt it was a very wrong and incorrect thing to want,” starts the woman who you probably know better as The Governess from game show The Chase.

“I didn’t sort of want to accomplish anything particular, I just sort of wanted to be famous for something.”

Growing up she thought the way to see her name in lights would be becoming an actor. Or a writer.

Never did Hegerty think that, at 66 years old, what she would be known and celebrated for is the same thing she was picked on for when she was young – her brain.

Anne Hegerty – The Governess) on The Chase – always wanted to be famous. Picture: Justin Lloyd

At a time when free-to-air television numbers are dwindling, it’s game shows that people are still watching. And The Chase is one of the most successful.

Originating in the UK, it sees contestants play a professional quizzer, or “Chaser”.

Because of The Chase, Anne Hegerty is celebrated for the same thing she was picked on for when she was young – her brain. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

In Australia, it’s hosted by Larry Emdur and it averages 1.5 million viewers a night. Across the ditch, it’s believed that three out of four New Zealanders have watched at least one episode of The Chase or its spin-offs.

All that’s to say that, since she joined the show in 2010 as the villain-esque Governess chaser, Hegerty (who appears in both the UK and Australian versions) has gotten her fame.

“When I was at the airport in Sydney, a guy said to me, “Excuse me, are you a teacher?” And I said, “No, I’m sort of a Governess.” And he said, “Which school?”

It’s lunchtime on a Wednesday at Golden Century at Crown Sydney.

Anne Hegerty went for duck with plum sauce at Golden Century at the Crown. Chinese is one of her favourites cuisines.

Hegerty, who is in town shooting the Australian version, has requested we High Steaks at a Chinese restaurant, because it’s one of her favourite cuisines.

Her father was born in China because her grandfather worked for the RAF.

Hegerty, herself, was born in Westminster. And she says the greatest tragedy of her father’s life was “he never understood how ordinary he was. He thought he was brilliant.”

Hegerty’s father did a test with Mensa (a society whose members quality by having an IQ in the top two per cent of the population) and it proved he had a massive IQ.

But Hegerty, a member of Mensa herself, believed it just showed he was “simply good at doing a certain kind of research contest”.

Her father went from job to job, while it was her mother who believed in educating women.

Contrary to societal opinions at the time, Hegerty’s mother had been to university in 1924, as well as her grandmother’s sister before that.

Anne Hegerty as a 25-year-old.

So their house was filled with books, and it’s from a young age that Hegerty realised not only could reading teach her things but also that, unlike some around her, she could easily retain information.

She was reading Shakespeare in primary school and before her duck with plum sauce, and my fillet steak Cantonese style arrives, she recites the 35-lines of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, To Be Or Not To Be.

“The world record for saying this is 45 seconds,” she says. “I can do it in about a minute.”

She never thought she was unique. Just odd. At school she was picked on for being a loner and “standing around in the playground on my own wondering why the hell we were out here and could I not just get going to the library and read a book?” she says.

It took until she was 47 years old to discover her high IQ and her difficulties in some social interactions were because she had what was formerly called Asperger’s syndrome, but now is considered a high-functioning form of autism spectrum disorder.

The discovery came after Hegerty was watching a program about autism and recognised some traits in herself, which led to an expert ­diagnosis.

The diagnosis made her “less bitter about my childhood,” she says.

At 47, Anne Hegerty discovered her high IQ and her difficulties in some social interactions were because she had a high-functioning form of autism spectrum disorder. Picture: Lia Toby/Getty Images

“I can remember little girls at school coming up to me and saying ‘Will you be my friend?’ And I was like, ‘No thanks.’

“I don’t know of any particular reason to have a friend. I didn’t realise, though, that was terribly offensive.”

It also provided a sliding doors moment that would lead the quiz-loving Hegerty (in her spare time, she’s either reading or doing quizzes online) ending up on The Chase.

Working at the time as an academic proofreader (she had also worked as a journalist), she was “finding it difficult to concentrate. I was losing clients and very short of money”.

The diagnosis meant she could apply for job and disability living allowances.

It was that extra money that gave her time to join and attend events as part of UK’s quizzing circuit because, “not only do you not win money at these events, you have to pay to go in for them,” Hegerty laughs.

But it was part of this circuit that led to her audition – and subsequent role – on The Chase. And now she’s become somewhat of a role model for people with autism, although it’s not something she’s entirely comfortable with.

In 2018, she appeared on UK reality show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here.

“I remember one of my camp mates asking me about (autism) and I talked a bit. I didn’t realise I’d then end up being the top story on the news the next day,” she says.

But in a full-circle moment, her fame on The Chase has led her to flex her acting muscles in pantomimes and she’s hoping to get into voiceover work too.

She’s met The Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.am. Heck, even American singing legend Chaka Khan is a fan of the show.

“When she’s in the UK, she likes to watch the show. She can’t remember my name, she calls me the big woman. But she knows who I am,” Hegerty says.

“I still do sometimes think ‘Am I going to wake up and discover that I’ve been hallucinating for 15 years and I’m really locked up in a mental ward or something?’.”

The Chase Australia airs 5pm weekdays on Seven and 7plus

Originally published as High Steaks: A sliding doors moment changed the life of The Chase’s Governess, Anne Hegerty