Mairead Ronan has quit Ireland’s Fittest Family after 10 seasons.
The 43-year-old made the shock announcement on her new podcast, Jenny and Mairead Now, with Jenny D’Arcy.
She said: “I am no longer the host of Ireland’s Fittest Family. I [quit] in early February. I got the call to say, ‘It’s back on this year, series 11 and we’ll meet up and we’ll do the chats and talk about that new contract.’ And all that kind of stuff that you have to talk about.”
“I was like ‘cool’, and then I met them and I said ‘I’m not going to go back.’ I’ve been thinking about it since I filmed the final episode last year. I have been thinking about it loads and loads and loads.”
The RTÉ star explained: “I’ve been there from year one to year ten, I’ve watched it go from this little, small home-grown format in Ireland to this pillar in the RTÉ schedule. But I’ve done it and there’s no more I can do and I just would love to do something else, I would love a different challenge.”
“Having stepped away from the radio, then I enjoyed the change and I’d love a change in this area too.”
“It’s funny because some of the lines and some of the things I said to the bosses of the show the day I gave them the news, I then heard Ryan Tubridy saying about a month later on the radio [when he announced he is stepping down as the host of The Late Late Show]. Like, I know when it’s time to leave the party and I’ve gone home in the taxi.”
“And the funny thing is, I have said I always know when to leave a relationship. I always know when to leave a party and I always know when to leave a job. And this is the right time for me to leave this job, it just is. But I’ve loved working with them. I’ve worked with that gang for 12 years. They’re like my telly family.”
Mairead went on to say: “So 12 years in-a-row during the summer outdoors, getting blown away in fields, getting rain in my face. But it’s so brilliant and I have loved every second of it but I’d just love to do something else.”
“And the truth is, I don’t have something else. So it’s not like I can go, ‘There’s a couple of things in the pipeline.’ There’s not so it’s a big leap into…I don’t know. I might never be on the telly ever again.”
“It’s about leaving it on a high and leave it in the hands of somebody new.”
It comes after Mairead announced her shock departure from Today FM in November 2021.
