News of AFL great James Hird's 27-year marriage to wife Tania came crashing down on Monday, but if you had looked in the right places you would have seen telltale clues about the explosive split.
The longtime soccer power couple kept their surprise out of the public eye for more than a year.
Hird is now believed to have moved out of the family home in the exclusive Melbourne suburb of Toorak after living there with his ex-wife, daughter and three sons.
While the Essendon legend is known to be a reclusive figure, especially since going through the Bombers drugs scandal when it broke in 2013, Tania is a prolific figure on social media due to her fashion business, Tania Hird Designs .
Daily Mail Australia examined posts he made over the past year and found there were several clues to the breakup hiding in plain sight.
Hird often appears in photos and videos on her company's Instagram page while modeling the label's range of clothing and accessories, and also sometimes gives her followers a glimpse into her luxurious private life.
The news that James and Tania Hird (pictured together at the 2006 Brownlow Medal ceremony) has divided football fans like a bolt from the blue on Monday.
However, a close look at Tania Hird Designs' business Instagram account reveals that she stopped wearing her wedding ring in September last year (pictured).
In the photo: one of the last photos that Tania Hird posted on Instagram showing her wearing her wedding ring.
On September 24 last year, Tania was featured in a post modeling a dress while vacationing in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.
There didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary in the pictures, but it marked the last time she wore her wedding ring in posts for the business.
Just three days later, she shared a photo showing her three children vacationing with her at the tourist spot, with James nowhere to be seen.
Her left ring finger was hidden in that post, but not in one that fell off on September 30, when the ring was obviously missing.
Tania, who was working as a lawyer when she married Hird in 1997, stayed by the football great's side as he reached incredible highs and lows in his career on and off the field.
As a player from 1992 to 2007, Hird swept everything that came his way: winning premierships in 1993 and 2000, taking the 1996 Brownlow Medal, being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and being named in the Bombers' team of the century. He established himself as one of the best players in the history of this sport.
After retiring as a player, Hird began working successfully at a leading sports management company before becoming head coach of his beloved Bombers in 2011.
James Hird is believed to have moved out of the family home in Toorak (the former couple is pictured outside court in 2014)
In September last year, Tania posted a photo of herself on holiday with the three children she shares with the Essendon legend, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Initial success came to a halt in February 2013, when allegations of illegal drug and supplement use by its players were revealed.
With Hird at the helm, Essendon was at the center of one of the biggest scandals in Australian sporting history, with 34 players found guilty on appeal of taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 2012 AFL season.
He was rushed to hospital in January 2017 after overdosing on prescription drugs at his family home in Toorak, before being transferred to a specialist mental health facility.
Hird spoke out about the devastating effects of the Bombers' drug scandal in 2020 and revealed he thought about taking his own life when he hit rock bottom.
“I remember sitting on my kitchen floor and everyone had gone to bed, my wife was upstairs, the kids were in bed and I was sitting there crying on the floor,” he said.
'You're just grieving this life you had. As much as I was glad to retire because I'm sick of being in pain…there was a grieving process.
'I really felt for my wife because she was trying to keep our family together.
“She's a very proud person and also very defensive of me because she's obviously seen me go through a lot.”
Hird was suspended from Essendon in August 2013 for 12 months, following a doping and supplements scandal involving the banned peptide Thymosin-4, which had been used at the club.
He left his role as coach of Essendon Football Club in August 2015 and was rushed to hospital after being hit by a car while cycling in Melbourne in November 2018.
The couple amassed a large business and property portfolio after marrying, including two houses in Toorak.
They sold one of their luxury investment homes for $4.2 million in 2015 and pocketed a $1.5 million profit.
A former lawyer, Tania founded her own hair care brand called HairFlare in addition to her fashion company.