WHY TRACY REALLY QUIT!
Big business is calling for the TV legend, who is farewelling primetime
It was the announcement Nine executives had been dreading for years, yet Tracy Grimshaw made no secret of the fact that she’s long dreamed of a life out of the spotlight.
She considered turning her back on fame when she lost her beloved mum Barbara to lung cancer in 2011, but it wasn’t until she was rocked with the loss of several other important people in her life that she decided it was time to quit.
“I’m not too old. I’m just a bit tired,” Tracy revealed when she made the bombshell announcement last week that she was quitting A Current Affair live on the show that she has hosted for the past 17 years.
Nine insiders reveal that Tracy wanted to quit her high-profile job two years ago when she turned 60, but let herself be talked into staying out of loyalty to the TV network that made her a star.
“Tracy is one of the most loyal friends you could ever have, and she loves Nine and appreciates all the opportunities she’s been afforded over the years, but she just felt she’d given enough and it was time,” a Nine staffer reveals.
“I know she’s had to deal with some difficult losses over the past few years, which made her reassess what’s really important. She’s been thinking about her future ever since that terrible horseriding accident she had in 2015.”
Tracy, 62, who lives on a beautiful hobby farm on the outskirts of Sydney with a collection of beloved rescue dogs and horses, sparked health concerns from fans when she attended the opening night of Phantom Of The Opera in Sydney last month.
“She seemed to be struggling to walk and it was obvious she was in some pain,” one patron,
who also attended the red carpet event at the Opera House, tells.
Tracy’s announcement came as a surprise to many at Nine, and even to some of the staff of A Current Affair, but that was the way she wanted it and she made it very clear it was her decision.
“I want you to know it’s been my decision alone and I’m not being shoved out the door by the boys’ club because I’m too old,” she told viewers last Monday night.
‘Wherever she lands, it will be on her terms, like always’
Insiders maintain there are plenty of opportunities coming Tracy’s way. There are even current whispers the TV icon is being eyed off by her highpowered friends the Oatley family, who own Hamilton Island, to join their board.
“Her name has been floating around between them for some time,” shares a source, who insists she could be set to make millions if she does break into the business world.
The Walkley Award-winning journalist started her TV career at Nine’s Melbourne newsroom in 1981, and Midday with David Reyne in 1995, before co-hosting Today with Steve Liebmann, then taking on ACA.