Gay Byrne has revealed that he’d love to return to work in RTÉ, but his wife Kathleen and their daughters Suzy and Crona won’t let him.
The 84-year-old has been battling prostate cancer since he was diagnosed in 2016, which resulted in him leaving behind his Sunday show on Lyric FM.
However, RTÉ have asked the veteran broadcaster to return to his post in RTÉ in the New Year, but his return to work is simply out of the question.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent’s Living magazine, Gay said: “RTE want me back on the air in January for my little Sunday afternoon programme and I won’t be let go.”
“They just say I’m not up to it at the moment, and I suspect they may be partly right, but nonetheless I greatly regret that I can’t do it,” he said.
Gay explained: “It was my little outlet, that’s all. It was unimportant. It was only a Mickey Mouse radio programme but it was an appreciative listenership. In fairness, it affects Kathleen as well, because it was her Sunday too.”
Gay joined Radio Éireann in 1958, and was the first host of ‘The Late Late Show’, the world’s longest-running chat show, presenting it from 1962 to 1999.
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