Nikki Hayes: attack left her bruised and sporting a black eye

RTÉ RADIO DJ Nikki Hayes has branded Ireland a nation of begrudgers and rounded on former industry friends who she says deserted her after she was assaulted in a Dublin hotel two months ago.


In her first interview since returning to her daytime slot on 2fm, Hayes (29) says she was shocked by the way she was dropped by people whom she believed had been her friends.


"When I was down people were very happy to kick me in the gutter," she told the Sunday Tribune. "I suppose you have to go through bad things in life
to realise who your real friends are and, by God, did I find out who was genuine as opposed to the people in-
fluenced by gossip."


The daytime presenter was attacked by a male assailant in a Temple Bar hotel on 9 April. Left battered, bruised and nursing a black eye, Hayes was later treated in St Vincent's Hospital and was off-air for five weeks following the incident.


But while Hayes tried to recover from her injuries she says she was dropped by friends as malicious gossip circulated about her.


"At the time you think 'oh my God, this is awful. I can't believe this person is turning their back on me' but you come out realising these people were never my friends anyway or they were only my friends for the good times.


"I was sitting at home with bruises and trying to get my confidence back at the time and they didn't ring or call. They just didn't want to know."


Hayes says she was particularly hurt by claims in the press, by what was described as a "Garda source," that they had no record of an assault.


"The guards were most certainly present on the night and the investigation is ongoing. I'll just say there is an awful lot more to the attack which I can't talk about right now. And as for this 'Garda source', when somebody says 'Garda source' that could be anybody in the Garda canteen for the way it went on.


"The rumours reached a stage where people were saying I had been fired from RTÉ which was completely untrue. I love Ireland but we are a nation of begrudgers whether we like it or not. Irish people love to dish the dirt on other Irish people. In my case there were a lot of people going around talking to newspapers about stories they weren't involved in, but at the time I couldn't answer or come out and say 'that's wrong'. I just had to put up with it for five long weeks," said Hayes.


The radio host says she did have support, particularly from her employers.


AMAZING


"John Clarke, my boss at 2fm, has been amazing and I'm not just saying that. He really has. He has gone beyond everything, he was there on a personal level as well as a business level. He has just been amazing and my family as well."


Support too came from the tens of thousands of listeners who tune into Hayes's 12-2pm weekday slot.


Despite these setbacks and losing her dad Pat to cancer in May 2007, Hayes says she is going to make a
new start with a parachute jump
with skydive4charity.ie to raise
funds for her favourite charity, ASH Animal Rescue.


"It's really been chaotic since last May when dad passed away. It's been downhill, downhill, downhill and I often said 'you have to hit rock bottom before you come back up,' so why not jump out of a plane? To me this symbolises a new start. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and not everybody listening in on the radio is going to be a fan. Someone always wants to throttle you."