They may be the king and queen of Irish celebrities – but Amy Huberman and Brian O’Driscoll prefer Netflix nights in to showbiz parties out.
Dublin actress and writer Amy can now add children’s author to her list of accomplishments as she promotes her new book, The Day I Got Trapped In My Brain. The mum-of-three opened up to the Sunday Mirror on home life with her famous former rugby star husband Brian, admitting the pair tag team when it comes to rearing their kids.
There was a time back in the noughties when the celeb couple were known as Ireland’s Posh and Becks, but that’s a distant memory. Amy, 43, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I haven’t seen that in a long time, back in the noughties maybe.”
Read more: Amy Huberman reveals on Late Late moment that Queen Elizabeth poked fun at Brian O'Driscoll's nose
Amy said she and Brian actually shun the limelight: “I don’t think Irish people would let you get away with that and that for me is not on the radar. I go to the school to pick up my kids. I identify with the day to day.
“Listen, with Brian’s success and (seeing as) we’re both in the public eye, it’s not a thing we focus on. It’s just a side that comes with our jobs. It still takes me by surprise.”
The busy mum to Billy, Sadie and Ted said romance for the fabulous couple is usually a date night. She said: “I can’t do anything in the evening other than watching an episode of Selling the OC.
“Since lockdown I will watch other stuff with Brian earlier in the night. We watch Netflix together, we’re quite bad, we haven’t yet reclaimed our evenings.
“I listen to audible books, I haven’t gone to bed with a book in I don’t know how long. I look at friends who sit down and watch things at 8pm, I know there are certain things Brian won’t watch with me.
“I’m watching The Flight Attendant on my own. We still haven’t finished Succession.”
As for her guilty pleasures on telly, she adds: “I haven’t started watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but that’s next on my hit list. Brian will never watch that but that’s OK! It’s nice to spend that time together or else you’re constantly running around. You invariably end up talking about the episode.”
Despite being one of Ireland’s most famous faces, starring in the Clinic and more recently Finding Joy, the beauty said at the school gates she’s just like the other mums. She said: “My kids have been in school for years now, I wasn’t looking for new friendships.
“When you’re about to start schooling, you think I’ve got my friends. You spend so much of your life in this new world, I’ve made brilliant friends. It was the unexpected joy of all this.” Other mammies don’t treat her differently, she explains: “If they saw me in something they might say, oh we watched that, but to them I’m Billy and Sadie’s mum.”
Writing a children’s book was never on her radar but after getting stuck in she found the process cathartic as she dealt with her father Harold’s ill health. Her beloved dad had been battling Parkinson’s Disease when he passed away three months ago, age 84.
Opening up on his passing, Amy said: “I’m just rolling with it, but when you are trying to deal with your own grief. You can feel very exposed in that way, there are no rules, I’m just trying to muddle through it.
“I would see him so much as he was only up the road from me. It was hard over lockdown, because there were times I wasn’t able to see him. I’m so grateful for the time we did have as we got to spend a lot together.”
The stunner said “running” with her feelings in the aftermath of her dad’s passing was a coping mechanism. She said: “All that love you have for someone you don’t know what to do with it. It’s so weighted with your sadness, it’s so knotted together, it feels one in the same.”
From LA to Wexford it’s been a busy summer for the devoted couple: “We went away so much this summer. I said to a friend, I’m just running away. She said ‘you’re not running away from it, you’re just running with it’.
“It’s very true, you have to run with it. People who have been through it, they say it gets easier and others say it never goes away. I’m sure it gets easier, the initial shock is so bad, the longer you haven’t seen them. It’s such a weird one, but there are lovely moments when you can hear them.
“I only know my life with him in it, it’s such a huge anchor and we will all have to go through it."
The voice of 11-year-old Frankie Finkleton takes centre stage in The Day I Got Trapped In My Brain. In parts, the character is similar to Amy in her youth.
She explains: “It’s probably a mix of stuff reminiscent of me. The heart of the book is a love letter to siblings, to my brothers Mark and Paul, it was such years of exploration.The chats you’d have with your brothers and try to keep from your parents.
“I wanted to create a character with an inner confidence but not quite a teen who feels unsure of herself. She loves snails because she loves to retreat and hide.
“She’s probably a little bit of so many elements of my childhood. My daughter Sadie is nine, I know that world, it’s in my consciousness although Frankie is 11.
"It’s a story of love and loss which are hard emotions to navigate even as an adult. It’s about the magic of imagination that you have as a kid, she feels sorry for the adults.
“I look so fondly at those years of play. There’s a huge element of play in my job still, but you have to change slightly, it would be odd if I was still playing with dolls.”
Despite her uber success, Amy still “second guesses herself”. She reveals: “I can second guess myself so much with things. I absolutely lean towards positivity; yes I have a bubbly personality, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a constant. Nobody gets away scot-free from the things that hold them back.
“I wish I was more decisive about things, as much as I love being carefree. When big things in your life happen, you realise how fleeting it all is. The little things we trip ourselves up over, I’m very sensitive.”
