Former Tallafornia star Kelly Donegan has opened up about the horrific abuse she suffered while on the show – recalling the moment a man pulled up her dress in front of everyone while on a night out.
And the reality TV star revealed she was once egged by a group of lads in a car while she walked home alone from the gym one evening.
Recalling her horror experience from being on the hit show over ten years ago, Kelly said: “I was egged once. I was walking home from the gym, and I was egged. By men in a car and I was alone.
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“I had my dress pulled up in a nightclub. I was in a nightclub in Tallaght. It was a friend of mine's birthday. I never really socialised (in Tallaght). I was in town. All the usual places back then… Lillies, Krystle. But it was my friend’s birthday, so I went along.
“It was at the height of Tallafornia and everyone wanted pictures and I’m such a chatty person I talk to everybody and some guy who was really arrogant pulled my dress up in front of everybody.
“Everybody saw. I complained to the security, and they were like ‘I didn’t see it, there’s nothing we can do’.
“I think times have changed so much from 11 years ago to now. In a good way. But I went through a hard time, not as hard as some other people but..
“It hurt me more because it was local. It was people that I knew. Not very well. But I knew them.
“I would never do that to somebody, and I think jealousy rears its head in ugly ways.
“When it happened to me, I was so upset.”
Opening up about her days on the hit TV3 series, Kelly – who recently got engaged to Hungarian boyfriend Alex Hermann - said she has no regrets being on it but felt she wasn’t taken seriously after the show.
“I don’t believe in regret. I don’t regret doing Tallafornia. Like it is a great story to tell when you’re drunk, and it is pretty funny because everyone still knows exactly who I am. It is terrifying.
“It’s been 11 years, and everyone knows exactly who I am still. I don’t mind. I think the thing with Ireland is that I think if you can take a slagging, you’ll do well.”
The author, who wrote her own book, Build Your Own Body, said people on the street have been kinder to her nowadays since the show.
“No. As the years have gone on, more people are like ‘I loved you’ or ‘I thought you were treated really badly back then’ or ‘I don’t think that was right.’ Whereas back then it was totally different.
“I think when you get older, you look at things in a very introspective way in terms of growth, self-development, I look at things that happened in that show and I am the person I am today for doing it. The reaction that people had towards me and towards the show, the opportunities that I had.
“There were definitely lots of benefits, I was at gorgeous, glamourous events, lots of free travel, lots of free products. I definitely think because Ireland is so small in terms of the media industry that it was very difficult to be taken seriously but I tried,” she said at the launch of Bewley’s Fiesta of Flavour campaign, which unveiled new flavour combinations, including a ready-to-serve, nitro cold brew coffee, taking inspiration from South America.
The 33-year-old Dubliner – who is now a successful Pilates instructor - said she decided to take a step back for the last few years and focus on herself.
“Obviously I had done the whole reality TV thing and like always I am super honest. I definitely felt like I was climbing a wall that I could never be taken seriously like I really wanted to be in showbusiness and I worked really hard to make that happen but I don’t know.
“I don’t know if it was because it was Tallafornia and maybe people looked at Tallafornia in a certain way.
“I definitely found it very hard. I was putting a lot of graft in, and I wasn’t getting a lot out of it. It’s just for my own mental health, I just took a step back. I’m in my 30s now and I’m trying to get a house like most people.”
Kelly is a massive fan of Love Island and said she sympathises with Jacques O’Neill who was forced to quit the show after he revealed his mental health struggles.
“It’s very difficult to say because I think from my own experience, producers will take what they like and what they don’t like out of an episode.
“Like when we did Tallafornia from my memory, I think we filmed something shocking like 60/70 hours of footage. I could be wrong, but a huge amount of footage and they used like seven hours or ten hours.
“So they can pick and choose what goes in, what goes out. I mean like I think it is the age old story of, in my opinion, women being treated badly, toxic men. Now I sympathise with him because apparently he does have ADHD. I think he should’ve been screened prior to going in and asked ‘are you mentally able to cope with the challenges that you are about to experience?’ It doesn’t look like he is.
"I sympathise with him because I think whether people like you or they don’t like you everybody is a unique individual. I don’t think anybody deserves to be hated globally.
“I definitely wouldn’t be a fan of Jacques, I wouldn’t be a fan of Paige either. I think she is a nice girl but…”
But Kelly added that reality TV stars should embrace their newfound fame.
“I think if I had any advice for anyone going into reality TV now from my own experience is to enjoy it. Just enjoy it. For me I went into Tallafornia for fame. I was modelling at the time, and wanted to go into TV. I wanted more opportunities, and I took it so seriously and I took myself seriously.
“I didn’t really care too much about the hate but everything compounded gets a lot. I look back and I say I was on the most talked about TV show in Ireland, why didn’t I enjoy it more. I was a 23-year-old girl, whereas I had a very old head on my shoulders. I wanted to succeed so I wished I had enjoyed it.”
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