News of AFL great James Hird’s 27-year marriage to wife Tania falling apart came like a bolt out of the blue on Monday – but if you’d looked in the right places, you would have seen eye-opening clues to the bombshell split.
The long-time footy power couple kept their shock parting of the ways out of the public eye for more than a year.
It’s now believed Hird has moved out of the family home in the exclusive Melbourne suburb of Toorak after living there with his estranged wife, daughter and three sons.
While the Essendon legend is known to be a reclusive figure, especially since going through the Bombers’ drug scandal when it broke in 2013, Tania is a prolific social media poster due to her fashion business, Tania Hird Designs.
Daily Mail Australia examined the posts she has made over the last year and found there were several clues to the break-up hiding in plain sight.
Hird often appears in photos and videos on her business’s Instagram page as she models the firm’s range of clothes and accessories, sometimes also giving her followers a glimpse into her luxurious private life.
News that James and Tania Hird (pictured together at the 2006 Brownlow Medal ceremony) have split hit footy fans like a bolt from the blue on Monday
However, a close look at the Instagram account for the Tania Hird Designs business reveals she stopped wearing her wedding band in September last year (pictured)
Pictured: One of the last photos Tania Hird posted to Instagram showing her sporting her wedding ring
On September 24 last year, Tania appeared in a post modelling a dress while on holiday in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay.
There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about the footage, but it marked the last time she wore her wedding band in posts for the business.
Just three days later she shared a photo showing her three sons on holiday with her in the tourism hot spot, with James nowhere to be seen.
Her left ring finger was hidden in that post, but not in one she dropped on September 30, when the ring was obviously missing.
Tania – who was working as a lawyer when she married Hird in 1997 – stuck by the footy great as he hit incredible peaks and troughs in his career on and off the field.
As a player from 1992 to 2007, Hird swept all before him, winning the 1993 and 2000 premierships, taking out the 1996 Brownlow Medal, earning admission to the Australian Football Hall of Fame and being named in the Bombers’ team of the century as he stamped himself as one of the best players in the history of the sport.
After retiring as a player, Hird successfully took up work with a leading sports management company before becoming head coach of his beloved Bombers in 2011.
James Hird is believed to have moved out of the family home in Toorak (the former couple are pictured outside court in 2014)
In September last year, Tania posted a photo of herself on holiday with the three sons she shares with the Essendon legend – but he was nowhere to be seen
Initial success came to a screaming halt in February 2013 when the allegations of illegal drug and supplement use by his players were revealed.
With Hird at the helm, Essendon were at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in the history of Australian sport, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of taking performance-enhancing drugs across the 2012 AFL season.
He was rushed to hospital in January 2017 after he overdosed on prescription drugs at his Toorak family home, before being transferred to a specialist mental health facility.
Hird opened up about the shattering effects of the Bombers drugs scandal in 2020, revealing he thought about taking his own life when he hit rock bottom
‘I remember sitting on my kitchen floor and everyone’s gone to bed, my wife’s upstairs, the kids are in bed, and I am sitting there, just crying on the ground,’ he said.
‘You’re just grieving for this life you had. As much as I was glad to retire because I’m sick of being sore… there was this grieving process.
‘I really felt for my wife because she was trying to hold our family together.
‘She’s a very proud person and also very defensive of me because she obviously saw me going through a lot.’
Hird was suspended from Essendon in August 2013 for 12 months, following a doping and supplements scandal involving the banned peptide Thymosin-4, which had been used at the club.
He quit as Essendon Football Club coach in August 2015, and was rushed to hospital after being hit by a car while cycling in Melbourne in November 2018.
The couple amassed a large business and property portfolio after getting married, including two homes in Toorak.
They sold one of their lavish investment homes for $4.2million in 2015, pocketing a $1.5million profit.
Tania, a former lawyer, started her own hair care brand called HairFlare in addition to her fashion company.
