Doireann Garrihy has opened up about how she was worried for her career after fake rumours about her were spread on WhatsApp voice notes.
Doireann, 30, was just about to make her TV debut presenting on the Podge and Rodge show in 2018 when the 'vicious' online rumour began to circulate, detailing how she had allegedly 'stolen' her then boyfriend from another girl.
The Dancing with the Stars presenter says that although the story was not true, it did a lot of damage and 'assassinated' her character at the time, RSVP Live reports.
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She says the incident taught her a lot about the realities of social media and being in the public eye.
"Before that, I felt, well if someone’s going to follow me on social media, they must like what I do.
"But it was such a lesson that's just so not the case. A good chunk of people follow you to have a look and maybe wait for you to make a mistake," the 2fm presenter told Life Magazine.
Doireann says she received messages from followers who had been sent the WhatsApp telling her 'Please don’t tell me this is true.'
"It was basically, long story short, that I had stolen a guy from a girl," she said. "It was horrific, because when it’s not true, you’re getting calls from newspapers and from people saying things like 'Doireann, I've followed you since forever and I really didn't think you were this kind of girl'.
"I just froze. Which I think was the right thing to do at the time. I just did nothing."
Doireann says staying silent was tough and the incident also affected her family, leaving her sister in tears.
She added: "It was really hard though being in the eye of the storm and doing nothing. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my parents and I was so upset but at stage, they really didn’t understand the level of my social media presence so they were like 'It’ll be fine, it’ll all blow over'."
Doireann explained that when her older sister Ailbhe searched her name on Twitter, they realised that the situation had gotten out of hand: "And the tears started rolling from Ailbhe’s eyes. I was like 'If Ailbhe’s crying, can you see how bad it is?' It was a real character assassination."
Eventually Doireann put the rumours to bed when she cleared things up on her social media by posting a screenshot to her Instagram of a message from the alleged ex-girlfriend which confirmed to her followers that there was no truth to the rumours.
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