Former radio star Mairead Ronan has revealed she feels lucky she never got rude pics sent to her while on air.
But the Ireland’s Fittest Family host said she would often get comments about her looks – and pal and former rugby star Donncha O’Callaghan would always rush to her defence.
Mairead quit Today FM after nearly 20 years in December because she wanted to spend more time at home with her husband Louis, teenage son Dara and her young daughters Eliza and Bonnie.
Opening up about working in the media industry, she said: “I never get d**k pics. Thank God. Never.
"My male following is probably just a little bit older…I would get things all the time from men like, you know, ‘I like your hair longer’, when I cut it into a bob, or ‘I think you wear too much makeup’.
"I've sent these to the Fittest Family WhatsApp group, and Donncha O'Callaghan would be getting so annoyed, he's like, 'Who the f**k is your man?'!!”
Speaking to Mario Rosenstock on The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, Mairead shared that the radio business made her feel that she was "lucky" to have her job despite performing well and being loved by her audience, and grew "fed up," ultimately deciding to walk away.
"What's weird about the industry is you're made to feel like you're lucky to be there. You're lucky to have been given this opportunity, this chance," she told Mario.
"You never feel secure, ever, ever, ever feel secure, no matter how good a job you've done last year or the last six months, it's always like, Oh, contract negotiations are coming up. So, you know, dance monkey, dance monkey.
“And I don't know when I turned 40, I just got fed up with that. And I've always worked, so I have no reason to think that I wouldn't keep on working in the industry.
"But the other part of it is I'm so secure in myself now that I completely feel like I can walk away from it. And if I've made the wrong decision, which I haven't right now, I'm very, very happy with kids at home.
"But if I've made the wrong decision in a few years that I've left in such a good spot that, you know, some radio station might go 'yeah we'll give you a shot in four years or five years' if I've enjoyed my time at home. I’m still young, I'm 41, you know, that's all I am still loads to give, but I want to give it all at home."
She said she laughed when she discovered an extra 33,000 listeners tuned into her radio show as she was bowing out.
“So I got a text message from Pamela Blake, who was my producer on the lunchtime show, in Today FM. And she said, 'you're not going to believe this, but you know, the JNLRs are out again and you went up another huge amount, so what a way to go out'.
“And I just sent back an emoji cause I didn't know what to say. It was like a laughy face because I was like, I mean, you couldn't make it up, like, it's just too funny. I spent so long in Today FM being in production and worrying about JNLRs for the presenter, I eventually get my own show, I can't worry about the figures because we go into a pandemic and the JNLRs don't happen.
“So I'm kind of sailing in this sea with no compass. I don't know if we're doing well. I don't know if we're not, we get new owners. And then I eventually just decide, 'oh, I'm out, like in Dragons Den, I'm sorry, I'm out. I want to do my own thing, and end up getting the greatest results I could have ever wished for, and it's too funny.”
The star also says she doesn't allow negative comments to impact her over the years.
"I have a very, very thick skin, and I have that from being female and working in the media for 19 years, OK? And I'm also from working class Dublin, I'm from Finglas…so I've had all sorts of things over the years said about me, said to me.
“That one has not bothered me because I have worked really, really hard and I'm comfortable in knowing I've worked really, really hard. I have got to where I am, all by myself and through hard work.
"And I also know the other side of wanting to spend more time at home and not being able to because I absolutely could not afford to with Dara. Dara's 15 in two months time, and so instead of having lovely summers with Dara, I was taking a second job on. I was doing Ireland's Fittest Family, Celebrity Bainisteoir and various different things.
"So like, we had to rent our home for nine years before we could afford to buy one, which is recent enough two and a half years ago. So I don't mind those comments. People can say that, but they don't know.
"Nobody ever said to me while I was on the radio show, you know, two years ago, 'you know, why don't you give it all up and just stay at home? Sure you can afford to.'
“Nobody would say that Claire Byrne. 'Sure haven’t you done very well for yourself now, would you not stay at home now?''
“Nobody would say that to Jennifer Zamparelli. Why would nobody say that to Brendan O'Connor? ‘Would you not rather be with your kids the weekends now Brendan, would you not give up that old radio show at the weekends?’ Nobody would say that.”
