Mary Lou McDonald told Ryan Tubridy on tonight's Late Late Show that she felt "furious" and "hurt" by a recent book written about her by former Minister Shane Ross.
The Sinn Fein leader described the book as "despicable" and explained that while she accepts she is a public figure, her family should not be "up for grabs".
She said: "I'm a public figure and that goes with the territory. But my family aren't and my family aren't up for grabs. And in the book, there is things written about my childhood, written about a time in our lives that was hugely traumatic for my family.
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"And I think, to write that, to find the sore spot in someone's life, particularly trauma when you're a child, and you have no influence over it, and then to write that up almost like as a 'gotcha'. And to describe that, as it is in the book is like a skeleton in your closet, I think is wrong.
"I think it's kind of despicable. I was furious and I was hurt mainly for my mother. I mean, I am a public figure. If there's things to be said and analysed about me, that's fine. I happen to think that our families are not up for grabs."
She also told Ryan Tubridy that a future coalition with Fine Gael is "a long shot" but didn't rule it out. "After the last election, there was a whole concerted effort to say, not to us, but to the people who voted for us that somehow their votes were somehow lesser or that their representatives shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t have an opportunity at government and I think that flies in the face of fairness,” she said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I disagree fundamentally with Leo Varadkar on many things. I believe we should protect Irish neutrality. I don’t believe that we should have gotten away with a half a million euro cap for big bankers, I think that’s insane.
“Unlike him, I will respect whatever votes are cast by the Irish people, and I actually believe people should talk to each other."
However, Deputy McDonald said the “best outcome” would be a government without Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil.
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