News of AFL great James Hird’s 27-year marriage to wife Tania breaking up came as a bolt from the blue on Monday – but if you had looked in the right places you would have seen startling clues to the rift.
The longtime footy power couple kept their shock divorce out of the public eye for more than a year.
Hird is now believed to have left the family home in the exclusive Melbourne suburb of Toorak after living there with his estranged wife, daughter and three sons.
Although the Essendon legend is known as a reclusive figure, especially since she endured the Bombers’ drugs scandal when it broke in 2013, Tania is a prolific social media poster thanks to her fashion company, Tania Hird Designs.
Daily Mail Australia investigated the messages she made over the past year and discovered that several clues to the breakup were hidden.
Hird often appears in photos and videos on her company’s Instagram page modeling the company’s range of clothing 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) divided football fans like a bolt from the blue on Monday
However, if you look closely at Tania Hird Designs’ Instagram account, it appears that she stopped wearing her wedding ring in September last year (photo)
In the photo: one of the last photos that Tania Hird posted on Instagram, in which she is wearing her wedding ring
On September 24 last year, Tania appeared in a post modeling a dress while on holiday in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay.
There didn’t seem to be anything unusual about the footage, but it was the last time she wore her wedding ring on company posts.
Just three days later, she shared a photo of her three sons holidaying with her in the tourist hotspot, while James was nowhere to be seen.
Her left ring finger was hidden in that post, but not in the post she dropped on September 30, when the ring was noticeably missing.
Tania – who was working as a lawyer when she married Hird in 1997 – stuck with the big players as he reached incredible peaks and valleys in his career, both on and off the pitch.
As a player from 1992 to 2007, Hird swept everyone before him, winning the 1993 and 2000 premierships, winning the 1996 Brownlow Medal, gaining entry into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and being named in the Bombers team of the century when he billed himself as one of the best players in the history of the sport.
After retiring as a player, Hird successfully went on to work for 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
The initial success came to an abrupt halt in February 2013 when allegations of illegal drug and supplement use by its players came to light.
With Hird at the helm, Essendon were at the center of one of the biggest scandals in the history of Australian sport, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2012 AFL season.
He was rushed to hospital in January 2017 after overdosing on medication at his family’s home in Toorak, before being transferred to a specialist mental health facility.
Hird opened up about the devastating fallout from the Bombers drugs scandal in 2020, revealing he thought about killing himself when he hit rock bottom
“I remember sitting on my kitchen floor and everyone had gone to bed, my wife was upstairs, the kids were in bed and I was sitting there on the floor crying,” he said.
“You’re just grieving for this life you had. As happy as I was to retire because I’m tired of being in pain… there was a grieving process.
“I really felt for my wife as she tried to keep our family together.
“She’s a very proud person and also very defensive of me because she’s obviously seen me go through a lot.”
Hird was banned from Essendon for 12 months in August 2013 following a doping and supplements scandal surrounding the banned peptide Thymosin-4, which had been used at the club.
He quit as coach of Essendon Football Club in August 2015 and was rushed to hospital after being hit by a car while cycling in Melbourne in November 2018.
After their marriage, the couple built up a large business and real estate portfolio, including two homes in Toorak.
They sold one of their lavish investment homes in 2015 for $4.2 million, netting a profit of $1.5 million.
Tania, a former lawyer, started her own hair care brand HairFlare in addition to her fashion business.