When newsreader Sam Hayes won Dancing with the Stars last year, she didn’t think she could feel any happier.
But Woman’s Day reveals in this week’s magazine that the award-winning Newshub journalist has more reason to smile today – she’s found romance!
After the high of her Dancing with the Stars triumph with Aaron Gilmore last July came the inevitable fall of what Sam calls the “post-show blues”. “I was in a real funk,” she admits.
And so in January, the 35-year-old broadcaster set off on a daring adventure to climb the daunting Mount Aconcagua in the Andes – and it was here she also reconnected with Jeroen “Jay” Blaauw, who she first met four years ago when travelling.
A keen climber, it was Jay, who is from Amsterdam, who suggested that Sam took on the South American trip to lift her spirits.
They were in a party of 60 climbers, and Jay was by Sam’s side as they made the tough decision to turn back at 6700m, just 250m below the summit for safety’s sake.
Sam recalls, “The altitude and cold got the better of me.” But the extraordinary experience brought Jay and Sam close, and they are now officially an item.
Sam on the climb where she found love.
Meanwhile, Sam is relishing watching her Newshub co-host Mike McRoberts on Dancing with the Stars, because of course it was she who challenged him to take on the Three reality show.
“He’s got rhythm!” she says. “I’m so proud of him.”
For Sam’s full story about finding romance at altitude, see this week’s Woman’s Day.
