Alex Hayes is an Australian social media star best known for his Instagram profile @alexhayess and his eponymous YouTube channel, on which he mostly shares snippets of him participating in outdoor activities and extreme sports. He is a hyper active person who loves to surf, skate, sky dive, and cliff jump. He had originally earned viral fame for sharing a fake selfie with a shark. Apart from his regular content and the occasional challenge or prank videos, he also makes serious videos about mental health.
Early Life
Alex Hayes attended St Paul's Catholic College in Manly, New South Wales.
Social Media Career
Alex Hayes started his social media journey by posting a close-up picture of an eye on Instagram in December 2012. Since then, he has become known for sharing pictures of him enjoying various outdoor activities like surfing. However, he gained notoriety for sharing a fake selfie with a shark in 2015 that went viral on the platform. The picture, in which he could be seen sitting on his board while a shark can be spotted only meters away, reached over six thousand likes within a short period of time and made the headlines of international news outlets. He subsequently confessed, during an interview with news.com.au, that the picture was fake and that he and his friend Alex Gray played around with the picture of the shark to have a good laugh. They also thought that it was obvious that the photo was fake and never imagined that it would reach such a wide audience. He was still criticized by some for fooling people, although it did not take away from his popularity on the platform. He was also undaunted and shared another photoshopped image of him surfing on the back of a shark.
Alex Hayes had joined YouTube in August 2012, but started uploading videos of him surfing, cliff diving, and more in October 2015. He uploaded his first Q&A video in May 2016 and stated that he will be focusing more on YouTube. Since then, he has been regularly making videos, mostly about his beach life, but has also occasionally posted food challenge videos with friends, videos talking about mental health and bullying, as well as makeup and couples themed videos with his ex-girlfriend Eva Gutowski. He is also interested in music and has worked as a DJ.
Family Life
Alex Hayes grew up with a brother named Josh Hayes, who according to him is a great singer. He started dating American YouTuber Eva Gutowski in 2016. Rumors of the two dating surfaced in April that year after they began appearing in each other’s YouTube videos and social media pictures. Eva confirmed the rumors in July by sharing a picture of them enjoying in the sea. She shared a Tweet about boys playing with her emotions in August, but later clarified that it was directed to someone else, although she ended up dumping him by the end of the month, accusing him of using her and cheating on her.
