RTE's Sinead Kennedy has opened up about her long distance marriage to her naval officer husband, saying: “We just make it work”.
But the Today Show host admitted it is tough on her husband Conor Kirwan, who is currently seconded to the European Defence Agency and based in Brussels, to be so far away from their one-year-old daughter Indie.
She said: “It’s been tough on Conor and also for Indie looking for daddy and asking for him, but that is our reality for now.
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“And we knew what we were signing up for. It’s also for a finite amount of time, so we just make it work.
“We have flights booked to get us up to Christmas and after that we’ll book in the new year.
“I’d love to see more of Conor but this is where we are at right now,” she said, after spending the summer in Belgium together.
“So we’ll keep going and keep in touch via Facetime and WhatsApp and those other social media platforms that I still use.”
The Co. Cork native explained that she quit other social media sites such as Facebook shortly after joining RTE’s afternoon chat show, ‘Today’ in 2020.
She told the RTE Guide: “It’s a really toxic place and I have no interest in being there.
“People will love you or hate you, no matter what you do.
“It’s that line ‘What other people think of me is none of my business’.
“I don’t have to read vile abuse online and so I don’t go down that route. That’s just self preservation.”
Sinead went on to laugh off any rumours of drama on set between her on her Today Show co-stars Maura Derrane and Dáithí O'Sé, after the decision was made for her and Maura to split the presenting days - with Sinead co-hosting with Daithi on Monday and Tuesday and Maura taking over the rest of the week.
“Ah, we all get on great,” Sinead said, batting off any rumours suggesting others.
“People just want a bit of drama but sorry, it’s not Fair City, lads.
“All three of us have always got on and we just get on with our jobs. Yet people always want to pit once presenter against the other just because one is younger or the other has been in the job longer. There’s none of that. I’m ambitious for myself but never at the expense of others.”
The former children’s presenter, who also co hosted Winning Streak alongside Marty Whelan until it went on a hiatus has been busy in the past couple of years flexing her skills in the world of documentaries, with a number of acclaimed projects for TV and radio under her belt.
These include The Crossing, about the Irish navy and the refugee crisis in the Med, and Laura Brennan: This is Me, which documented the final chapters of the HPV campaigners life.
And as she gears up to celebrate a milestone birthday - the big 40 next September - she said she has no fear of getting older, and instead sees it as a privilege, having worked so closely with Laura, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 26, after a battle with cervical cancer.
“I’m not big on celebrating birthdays, don’t like all that attention, but I see every extra year of life as an absolute privilege that not everyday gets to experience.
“Working with Laura who went far too soon showed me how cruel life can be. That should not have happened. So now, I feel that you have to appreciate your days and there’s no shame in getting older. I’m just thrilled I'll be here for another year. Like I said, i’m very lucky and Indie has given me a great perspective on life.”
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