Radio star Mairead Farrell has admitted her first marriage broke down after she wed too early in an attempt to get over the pain of her mum’s death.
The Today FM producer married Eamon Fitzpatrick, a director at the station, in 2004 – just two years after they first met.
But the RTE presenter now realises that she jumped into a wedding in a bid to survive the ongoing pain of her mum Maureen’s passing in 2001 from cancer.
Mairead, 33, says that “maybe about a year after I was married” – before she had her now seven-year-old son Dara – she realised that she had rushed too quickly into getting wed.
Parent: Mairead with son Dara | VIPIRELAND.COM
And despite officially divorcing in 2010, Mairead knew it was over in late 2008 – adding that their uncoupling “happened over six months, seven months, eight months, a year”.
She said: “It is because, plain and simple, that I was probably grieving Mam a lot and I felt I had to grow up and I got married way too soon.”
Asked if she got married as a rebound from her mum’s death, she added: “It kind of was.
“It is funny you say that, but that is a line that I have used to friends and family and even to Eamon, my ex-husband.
“It was kind of rebound. This great love of my life, my mam, had died or had left me. Then, this good-looking, 6ft 2in, handsome boss swept in and swept me off my feet.
New job: Mairead with Ian Dempsey | VIPIRELAND.COM
“I was heartbroken. I was very, very young, but I felt I had to be older, for some stupid reason. I had no mam any more. I thought I had to be a grown-up.”
After their marriage-split, Mairead admits she would continually ask herself: “How did I get here? Because this isn’t what I’m from.”
But the former Ray D’Arcy Show producer insists that at the time she never understood that it was too soon to be getting wed.
She added: “I didn’t believe I was grieving. The time around when she died and the months after that were difficult but I was naive.
“Sure, I had never grieved anyone before, so I didn’t know what grieving was. I would have thought after four or five months that this is the norm; ‘Mam’s gone, you have got to get on with things.’
Old job: Mairead is known for her role on the Ray D’Arcy Show | VIPIRELAND.COM
“Eamon and I weren’t with each other two years and we were already married. I was 24. He is nine years older than me. I think nine years is absolutely fine when you’re both at certain ages.
“He was kind of next generation at the time to me. He was taking me to places I couldn’t afford to go to. It was a totally different world and it was very exciting and romantic.
“I felt at the time that he was almost this kind of replacement for Mam. He was big and strong. My mam, she wasn’t tall, but she was an incredibly strong character.”
Now Mairead is engaged again to new love Louis Ronan, the nephew of property tycoon Johnny Ronan, who she plans to wed next year.
