Hayley Holt eyes TV comeback with dream reality show role

Reality TV favourite Hayley Holt recalls her time in the spotlight and reveals she’s not done with telly yet. Photo / Woman's Day

If Hayley Holt could manifest her dream job right now, it would come with a camera crew, a tropical island – and a whole lot of drama. The former Breakfast presenter hasn’t been on our screens for more than a year, but she tells Woman’s Day she’s more than ready for a comeback. And at the very top of her wish list?

“I’m a reality TV mega fan,” she grins. “I watch pretty much all of it – and I just love it! It’s that ability to see the human condition in action. The relationships, the drama, the gossip and intrigue. I can’t get enough!”

As she eagerly anticipates the return of Celebrity Treasure Island, she can’t help but reflect on her own experience on the iconic show. Hayley’s career has taken plenty of twists – from pro snowboarder and dancing queen to political candidate and TV presenter – but she rates winning Treasure Island in 2007 as one of the best experiences of her life.

Hayley in Treasure Island back in 2007. Photo / Woman's Day

“Honestly, it was the most intense thing I’ve ever done,” she shares. “I know when you’re an outsider watching it on TV, it looks like we’re all just playing games. But when you’re in it, it feels like the most important thing in the world. You’re hungry, you’re competing for food, you’re desperate to win… Something plays with the psychology and it becomes so meaningful.”

Back then, Hayley, 45, was new to the fame game, having done just one series on Dancing With The Stars NZ, so she wasn’t surprised to be put into a team of other lesser-known Kiwis, competing against certified celebs like April Ieremia, Monty Betham and Rebecca Loos.

“We were the Z-listers!” she laughs. “I remember making it to the semi-finals and a producer said to me, ‘You weren’t meant to still be here!’ No one thought anyone from our team would get that far. But I just put 100% into it and looking back, there wasn’t much tactic – it was just grit. I was in my element.”

Hayley’s win propelled her to household-name status and she went on to appear on two more seasons of Dancing With The Stars, as well as its UK equivalent, Strictly Come Dancing, before moving into broadcasting.

Hayley with Peter Urlich on Dancing with the Stars. Photo / Woman's Day

“It was a big responsibility to come up with a dance each week and try to get the celebrities up to speed,” she says. “It was stressful, but it was an incredible thing to be part of. I made lifelong friends on that show.”

Almost two decades on, Hayley’s life as a mum of two looks very different. Having left TVNZ at the end of 2024 amid widespread restructuring, she’s still figuring out her next move. She didn’t expect to be out of work this long, but a short-lived stint in a sales role last year has taught her to hold out for a job that works for her family.

“I don’t want to rush into something that isn’t quite right again,” she says, speaking to us at her family home in Warkworth, where she, fiance Josh Tito and their two boys, Raven, three, and Kingston, two, are living with Hayley’s parents Robin and Murray.

While she and tradie Josh had hoped to be back in their own home by now, Hayley says there are huge upsides to intergenerational living.

Hayley’s life as a mum of two looks very different. Photo / Woman's Day

“It’s not always easy, but it’s pretty beautiful having three generations under one roof,” explains Hayley. “The boys love their nana and poppa so much – they always have someone to turn to as there’s always an adult available. They follow their poppa out on the farm, help him with the jobs and ride on the four-wheeler down the driveway to check the mail with him. It’s tiring for my parents, but the kids are in heaven.”

Raven and Kingston are the light of their mum’s life – and she’s conscious of how fortunate she is to be with them every day. She’s focusing on the positives, rather than stressing over job hunting.

Hayley with fiance Josh. Photo / Woman's Day

“Financially, we’re stretched, but Josh is working super-hard and I’m choosing to trust in the universe that everything will work out. In the meantime, I get to hang out with my boys and not have to rush anywhere, which feels pretty special.

“They’re the cutest little things – very cheeky, funny and so cuddly. I live for their cuddles.”

Hayley says she’d love to return to broadcasting and in an ideal world, she’d be the Kiwi version of late US talk show host Barbara Walters. “That would be the dream.”

She’d also jump at the chance to go on Treasure Island again – although she knows she’d need a new strategy.

She says, “I’m a different person now – I’m 45! I’m tired, my body hurts and I don’t have the same ability to just tough it out, so I’d have to think up a game plan and strategise. But I’d still be out to win!”