Jess Redden has addressed her husband Rob Kearney’s shock confession about their wedding day.
The couple tied the knot in December 2021, and hosted their lavish wedding reception at the Trump International Hotel in Doonbeg, Co. Clare.
Less than two years later, the pair welcomed their first child, a son named Bobby, in August 2023.
During an interview last week, the former rugby player risked offending his wife Jess when he admitted that his wedding day wasn’t the best day of his life.
He told the Insights with Sean O’Rourke podcast: “I’m sure she won’t mind me saying this, but discussing our wedding day with Jess is always… she thinks this was the best day of her life, there’s nothing that would come close to her wedding day, the best day of her life.”
“I loved it, I’d love to do it all again, and in my own head I’m thinking ‘Jaysus this doesn’t come into the top ten days of my life’. I’ve had Heineken cups, Grand Slams, beaten the All Blacks…our wedding day doesn’t even register.”
Sean laughed and told Rob to “be careful”.
He continued and spoke of the birth of his son: “I thought nothing would ever come close to some of these big victories, but the birth of your first child has made all of those sporting days so insignificant. Family life has become my biggest purpose.”
Jess has since poked fun at Rob’s comments on her Instagram.
Sharing a photo dump from the weekend, the pharmacist included a snap of an embarrassed looking Rob with his hand over his face.
She added the caption: “Is this one of your top 10 moments?! 😆.”
During the podcast interview, Rob also admitted he would feel “disappointed” if his son decided not to play any sport.
He said: “I have a son now and I’d be very, very disappointed if he didn’t play a team sport.”
“I think it’s so important for people to have the softer skills of life I find now a lot of people take for granted.”
The former rugby player opened up about his sporting career, and the reality of life as a professional rugby player.
He admitted: “If you don’t have a very thick skin, there’s a chance that you won’t survive in that profession.”
“It comes with the territory over it. And you can develop that as the years go on and there were definitely things said to me that I absolutely took to heart, and I was very offended by them, but you just learn to move on and get on with it.”
Rob told Sean that former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was “ruthless” and “difficult to work under” at times.
Rob said: “He was a ruthless coach, the ultimate perfectionist. If you were a beat off in terms of what he wanted you to do, you’d get two barrels between the eyes.”
“It was difficult to work under him, to work in that sort of regime – constant stress, constant pressure and anxiety put on you from Monday to Friday. Sometimes when the game came round it was the easier part of the week.
He added: “But that was a big thing within his coaching philosophy, that he wanted to put players under the most extreme of pressure from Monday to Friday, that when Saturday came around it was almost the easy part.”
