RTE’s Des Cahill says it was love at first sight when he met his wife Caroline and gushed: ‘I’m boxing above my weight there’.
Almost 40 years on since they got married, the sports presenter said he feels ‘lucky’ for everything that has come in their time together - from his loving family to his career on telly.
The Dubliner said: "It’s 39 years since we married – and she still looks like a teen bride! I’m boxing above my weight there, definitely. She’s a Donegal woman.
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“She avoids the spotlight and all that, but she should be in the spotlight rather than me, it would make more sense!
“Caroline’s very social, she loves sing-songs… In fact, she’s so social to the point that I’m like “Jesus not again, where are we going now!”
Looking back at how it all began, he told RSVP Magazine: “I met her in the newsroom of the Carlow Nationalist. Caroline’s sister was married to one of the journalists there, and she was down visiting her. One day Caroline’s brother-in-law said to me, “Will you bring out my sister-in-law?
“She’s here for a few days?”
“I said, “I will in my… I will not!” Then he brought in a photograph of her – there were no camera phones back then – and I said, “Oh yeah, I’ll take her out!”
The Sunday Game pundit went on to joke: "It wasn’t love at first sight for her but it was for me!”
And asked if the pair do ‘date nights’ to keep the spark alive, he added laughing:
“If you write down “Des Cahill has date nights” I’ll get wedgied outside Croke Park by the lads [laughing].
“Caroline and I have done the full circle.
“We got married, had babies, then the two kids grew up, we had the house to ourselves, then my grandson Bobby knocked on the door and that’s changed everything again. But yeah, we do go out together.”
He went on to gush over their happy marriage, admitting: "It’s a big thing being still together after 39 years. It’s a long time.
“The year we got married was the year I joined RTÉ as well! We’ll have to do something special for our 40th anniversary."
Meanwhile, also celebrating nearly 40 years at RTÉ, the Up For The Match presenter said he still gets energised by his work all these years later and ruled out retirement anytime soon.
The 63-year-old said: “I have no intention of it, I’m energised by my work.”
Noting how he is not under contract with RTE, he added: “No, I don’t have to retire at 65 but you could be retired at 62 or something if they don’t renew your contract! You don’t have the luxury of deciding you’ll retire at 70 either, you’re not given that choice.
“And you don’t have a pension. People would have to be building up a pension so they continue working.”
The star also told that he isn’t worried about being replaced by new faces anytime soon, and told how he instead finds himself feeling ‘lucky’ for everything he has got to enjoy in his life and career.
The dad-of-two, who recently became a grandfather for the first time, said: “I’m beyond lucky! When I joined RTÉ, I joined the newsroom. I was on Morning Ireland when it started, I was one of the reporters working on it.
“But I was doing a bit of sport and switching to sport was fantastic.
“I saw the world and so many great events, but it’s more the people around those events that you remember.
“It’s a privilege. I feel lucky with my family and with my health. Those things are so important.”
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