Muireann O’Connell has admitted she “couldn’t get out of bed for six months”, after her show was axed from Today FM.
The presenter lost her job at the station last year, and was replaced by Mairead Ronan in a schedule shake-up.
Speaking on Sile Seoige’s podcast Ready to be Real, Muireann said: “I’ve lost jobs before the Today FM job and it’s always hard, but this was very public, and very out of the blue.”
“And there were various things in the background that I won’t or can’t go into…”
Muireann continued: “There was a little bit of vindication, I felt, because figures came out just shortly after that and it was like, ‘Aye great, show’s going great’.
“God bless a few people I know in the industry who did a big deep dive for me to go, ‘This is what it looks like, this is what’s going on’.
“I was like, ‘Great’. It just helped my head a little bit, but at the same time I couldn’t get out of bed for six months… because it was just horrible.”
Muireann also opened up about her parents reaction, and admitted her mum was “devastated” over the news.
“I’m not married, I don’t have children so it’s not that distraction but everything about me is my parents. It really is, they’re my world I absolutely adore them,” she said.
“And you know parents put so much work into you and they’re so proud of you and they’re so happy for you.”
“I just kept thinking about them being mortified and being embarrassed and having to talk to their friends and say what had gone on… Because if I was getting it, they were certainly getting it as much as I was.”
“My mum… sure she was devastated, the poor woman was devastated. Bren was devastated as well but he was like, ‘Oh right OK come on you’re grand. It’s fine, move on. What’s next?'”
“I just could not stop thinking about my parents because it was done nationally and we’re in a space now where radio probably, certainly the radio I was doing, wasn’t as important as it had been ten years ago.”
“But yeah it was national heartbreak. We work in an industry where these things are going to happen, it’s just the way that it happened that sort of killed me,” she added.
