Jennifer Zamparelli was struck down by a mystery illness on a family holiday last month, which left her “traumatised”.
Following her 11-week stint hosting Dancing With The Stars, the TV presenter jetted abroad with her husband Lau, their two children Florence and Enzo, and her parents to celebrate her 43rd birthday.
But sadly, the RTÉ star’s holiday was ruined after she contracted a nasty bug that left her bed bound for five days.
Speaking about her illness on her new podcast with Lottie Ryan, Jennifer said: “I was on holiday quite recently and I got a bug, I was really ill.”
“I was really sick on holiday – feel sorry for me! I couldn’t eat or drink. Imagine being on holiday with your family and not being able to have a glass of wine? Traumatised!”
The mother-of-two revealed she was still ill when they returned home, prompting her to call a doctor.
She said: “I got home, I’m still sick, I still had diarrhoea, it was ongoing. I called the VHI and was like, ‘This is still happening, it’s not good, what do I do?’
“He said, ‘Well do you know what, it sounds like you have a gastro infection – you can let it run it’s course or you can come in and we can get to the bottom of this’.
“My niece had me freaked that I had a parasite in my intestine because she had one when she went to India so I was convinced I had one.”
While Jennifer was concerned about her illness, she decided against further tests after the doctor told her she would need to “s*** into a jar”.
“He told me to come in, s*** into a jar and we can get to the bottom of it,” she recalled.
“I said, ‘Not a f***ing hope in hell am I s***ing into a jar on my 43rd birthday. It’s my birthday, I’m not s***ing into a test tube’.
“I said ‘Give me my imodium, I’ll be on my way’ and I’m grand now,” she joked.
