New starts for Veitchs

Tony Veitch enjoyed a social day at the Ellerslie races yesterday, winning the 2.45pm with a bet on Wealth Princess. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Love is blossoming again for Tony Veitch's ex-wife - she has been linked to a new, high-profile businessman.

It is understood Zoe Halford has been dating property high-flyer Hayden Bryant, the ex-boyfriend of TV star Charlotte Dawson.

Veitch is also looking forward to a new beginning - although his is focused on his sports broadcasting career, as he returns to Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport. Yesterday, he and friends were among the 25,000 who packed Ellerslie for the annual Boxing Day races.

Halford and Veitch separated this year, after the couple's harrowing 12 months in which the sports broadcaster was charged with assault and eventually pleaded guilty to injuring a former partner, Kristin Dunne-Powell, with reckless disregard.

Halford and Bryant - who was appointed this year as a senior director for CB Richard Ellis - are understood to have been friends for some years.

Bryant refused to confirm the relationship but the pair have been seen socialising at recent events.

Bryant split from Charlotte Dawson in 2007.

They briefly reunited for a function in Sydney last year. "He visits me often, but we're just good friends," Dawson said at the time. "We've had a very strong friendship since we broke up over a year ago and get on really well. He's a huge sort but there's nothing going on."

Meanwhile, Veitch this week took a big step forward in getting his career back on track, as The Radio Network announced he would return as a sports-news bulletin presenter and journalist for Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport early next month.

The 34-year-old said he was "incredibly grateful". It was "the only career I've known".

After his conviction in April, Veitch said he felt "incredibly guilty" at what he had put his wife and family through.

"I am going to have to ask my wife to be attracted to me again," he said. "I can't wait to be a daddy and that will be the greatest thrill and hopefully that will happen.

"But we need to just get back on track and we need to sort this out. I am not asking the public to have any sympathy for me. I have never once said I want people to feel sorry for me.

"I have lost my income, I have lost my job, I have lost my house, I have paid enormous legal fees ...

"We thought about our life together and starting having children, and instead, in that first year of our marriage, it was an absolute nightmare."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY