Martial arts moves save Top Model
Danielle Hayes turned to the taekwondo skills her Dad taught her when she found herself trapped in a Paris lift with a would-be rapist.
Model Danielle Hayes has described the moment a stranger tried to force himself on her while she was living in Paris – a traumatic experience that changed her life.
In an extraordinarily revealing interview, Hayes said her life had changed dramatically after she won New Zealand’s Next Top Model in 2010.
‘‘After I won, everything changed. I was abused on the street,’’ she said.
‘‘People threw cigarettes and bottles at me. I got the good and the bad of ‘being famous’. Mum and Dad got hate mail, too. I stayed away from New Zealand until it died down, then went home to Kawerau.’’
Hayes escaped the abuse by finding modelling work overseas, and in 2013, told how she had been returning to her central Paris apartment one night when she was attacked in the street.
In Mind food Style magazine, on sale tomorrow, she tells how the man approached her and began speaking to her in French. She carried on walking to her apartment, but the attacker caught up to her, grabbing her arms and pinning her against a wall.
‘‘I got away and ran to my front door. He was right behind me, so I fought to keep him out, and eventually I did.’’
Hayes said the assailant was let into the apartment building as she waited to catch an elevator to her floor.
The man pushed her into the elevator and tried to pull her clothes off.
‘‘I was punching him as hard as I could – I did taekwondo for 10 years, Dad was my instructor, so I know some self-defence. ‘‘I punched him in the throat so he lost oxygen and went down.’’ When the elevator doors finally opened, Hayes screamed at her flatmate: ‘‘This guy’s trying to rape me.’’ Hayes said her flatmate chased the man down the street with a knife and a frying pan, but he managed to get away. ‘‘I just cried,’’ said Hayes. ‘‘What was even harder was going to the police station to report it. Eventually it was all dropped; they couldn’t find him and the language barrier was a problem.’’ Hayes said she initially tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but the experience had left lasting scars on her. She managed to recover from the trauma by returning home to her family’s seaside bach, and going hunting and fishing. Hayes eventually returned to Paris and found modelling work. It was there that she got a call asking if she wanted to star alongside Scarlett Johansson in the film Ghost in the Shell which is being shot in Wellington. ‘‘Me? In a movie? I’m on the next plane. I play six characters, so you’ll see me all through the film.’’ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says petty crime is common in France, particularly in and around major cities and tourist sites, airports and railway stations, hotel lobbies, public areas, and on public transport.
The Spring/Summer issue of Mind food Style features Danielle Hayes in a Piha fashion shoot.