Goss Cover Star: Bonnie Ryan

Bonnie Ryan is living her New York minute, and it’s clear she’s here to make a name for herself, both in Ireland and abroad.

The singer-turned-makeup artist-turned-influencer, who is the daughter of much-loved broadcaster Gerry Ryan, jetted home from the Big Apple to be our Goss Cover Star for November.

Here we sit down for an intimate chat about why she’s finally feeling back to herself under the bright lights of the big city.

Bonnie and her husband John Greenhalgh have spent almost two years living in the USA, but relocated from California to NY back in June.

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While it has only been about five months since they moved to the east coast, Bonnie feels like a “different person” since they upped sticks and had a change of pace.

Her new lease of life is evident when she arrives at Goss HQ on the morning of our glamorous shoot, she’s fresh, bubbly and eager for the long day ahead, despite being right off a transatlantic flight.

As a trained makeup artist who spent many years working as a freelance MUA, Bonnie is, of course, doing her own makeup for the shoot, but honestly she doesn’t need much, she’s fresh faced and has a glowy complexion as she sits with me, cup of Barry’s tea in hand (she really misses Irish tea).

The first topic we delve into is life in New York, and it’s clear from her immediate smile that she loves her life there.

“God, I feel like I’m actually a different person,” she admits. “I think I’m a different person even in the last five or six months.”

“Even my husband was saying like ‘You’re more more you than I’ve seen you in years’. And that’s not to say that I haven’t been happy or anything, but he’s just like ‘you’re just so yourself now’. At the moment, I just feel light or something, and I’m just enjoying life.”

Bonnie is one of Ireland’s most well-known fashion and beauty influencers, with 166k followers across Instagram and TikTok.

She also happens to be a part of one of Ireland’s most famous families, whose patriarch was the late RTÉ broadcaster Gerry Ryan.

At 32, Bonnie didn’t think she’d be living abroad at this stage of her life.

Having met her now-husband John when she was a teenager, the pair have already ticked off some huge milestones – including buying a house, and getting married.

But one thing Bonnie never got to do in her 20s was travel, which was largely down to losing her father at such a young age.

Bonnie explained: “I never went inter railing, I didn’t do the J1, I always stayed home. And I don’t know, subconsciously I think I might have done that because obviously my dad died when I was just 17.

“So I was really young and I think I always felt such a responsibility to stay with my family, like stick around and band together. I just never, ever thought of leaving. I was like, we’ve already lost one family member, I don’t want to go and leave everyone.”

“I was like, we’ve already lost one family member, I don’t want to go and leave everyone”

“Then after a while, like we got married and I moved out and I bought a home and I was like, ‘Oh, everyone’s okay’. Like I don’t have to look after everybody anymore.”

Bonnie confessed she always felt like the caretaker in her family, but admitted she took it upon herself to take on that role.

“I just organise everything, I’m constantly worrying about them,” she said. “I just always felt like I have to look after everybody, including my mum.”

“And I just felt after I got married and moved out I was like, ‘They’re all fine. They’re grand’. Like the family unit doesn’t crumble just because I’m not down the street from them. I think that gave me a bit of clarity and to be like, ‘Okay, it’s okay to go and do your own thing. Everyone’s still going to be fine’.

I joked that she’s kind of done things backwards in a way, and Bonnie agreed before adding: “I’m actually glad that I did it this way because everything happens for a reason.”

Bonnie and John spent a year and a half living in California before they moved to the Big Apple, and the 32-year-old admitted she was behind the decision.

“It was such an adventure, and I’m so glad that we did it. I do miss it sometimes, but we just decided… to be honest it was actually more so me. When I change my mind on something, I change it really quick and then there’s no going back.

“I just woke up one morning and I was like, I want to go to New York. I just feel like the fashion, the beauty, the busyness of the city, it’s so much more hustle and bustle. And I’m real like get up and go, I like to be super busy all the time.

“California was very laid back, very chill, which was lovely for a while. But then I was like, I need ‘go, go, go’. And we also have a lot of our best friends who live there. John’s two groomsmen and their wives live in the building beside us.

“So one couple was already living there for the last five years, and then the other couple moved the same week as us from Dublin. And I’m so close with their wives, like I consider them my best friends now. So we’re all just a group of best friends living in New York.

“It’s kind of crazy at this age for something like that to happen, but it’s so much fun.”

I asked Bonnie if she felt lonely while they were living in California, and she replied: “So initially I was completely fine. I didn’t feel lonely. I was keeping myself busy. I would work during the day and then in the evenings myself and John had each other.

“That was amazing for a while. And then after a while, like we love each other’s company, we’re pretty much joined at the hip, but we were both like, ‘Okay, I think we’ve enjoyed this almost like quiet country-style life for a while’. We were ready to get back into it with all of our friends, be a little bit closer to our family.

“I don’t know if lonely is necessarily the right word, but definitely a quieter lifestyle while we were there. He was laughing at me when we arrived in New York because he was just like, ‘Oh, there you are’. He was like, ‘You’re in your element here’, and I do just love it.

“I do think that New York is just a lot more us. There’s so many Irish people, and it just has a similar vibe to Dublin. I don’t know, it’s just more busy, get up and go. It has a really cool vibe to it. And then like also it’s New York. Every day I walk outside and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, how am I living here right now?'”

“New York is just a lot more us”

It’s no secret that Bonnie is extremely close to her family, and being far away from them has been tough – but it hasn’t been as bad as she thought it was going to be.

“In California, I felt far away. But FaceTime is great. I talk to my mum every single day on FaceTime. Which is probably even more than when I did live in Dublin full-time,” she said.

“So I think that FaceTime is the best thing ever, but I don’t know how I would feel about living far away if I didn’t have something like that. I think back when my sister lived in New York for just a couple of months when she was younger, and that was back when there was only Skype. I think that would have been a lot more difficult.

“I don’t know, the world feels a lot smaller now, I think. My family are good at FaceTiming me, we have our WhatsApp group, we speak every morning, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I also think I come home so much as well. I’m home every three months or so, if not more.

“And if I’m ever needed for any even little work thing, I’m just on a flight, I can even come home for two days. I just don’t feel that far away. To be honest, I organise everything in my family. So it’s really only when I come home that we all end up doing big things together.”

As I mentioned before, Bonnie is the daughter of the late Gerry Ryan, one of Ireland’s most beloved presenters.

Being born into a famous family surely has its perks, but one thing she can’t seem to escape is the term “nepo baby”.

Earlier this year, Bonnie hit back at a nasty comment on Instagram that insinuated her success is because of who her dad was.

While she let the trolls get to her that day, Bonnie isn’t too bothered by the “nepo baby” title, and is “super proud” of the family she was born into.

“Funnily enough, I don’t really care that much because I know that I work really hard,” she told me.

“Also, I can’t help the family I was born into… and I’m so proud that I came from my dad, somebody who was so talented, and like, I didn’t lick it off a stone. I am the way I am because I come from an entertainment family.

Bonnie confessed the term would have bothered her more as a teenager, and said: “I don’t know, maybe I’m just more laid back now. I don’t really care that much what people think in that regard.

“Like I’m really proud of my dad, I’m really proud that I come from an entertainment family, I love what I do, I work hard. And if I didn’t come from him, then I wouldn’t do what I do and I wouldn’t be Bonnie. So I’m like, if that’s a bad thing, well, whatever.”

“I can’t help the family I was born into…”

“Depending on what people in your family do, you probably are going to potentially go into the same line of work. I grew up in a famous family, so yes, I understand people know what my name is, and they might know my face.

“But I made this career at the end of the day. And like, if you’re crap, you’re crap. Like there’s nothing you can do about it. So I think it just depends. This whole ‘nepo baby’ thing obviously has such negative connotations, but it’s like… I just feel like there’s literally nothing I can do about it.”

“I really like my job, I work hard, and whatever people think after that is on them. I can’t change the way somebody thinks. And luckily for me, the majority of who follow me, it would appear that they like what I do. So I’m like, it just is what it is. I’m proud of where I’ve come from. That’s just it.”

Another downside of growing up with a celebrity parent, especially someone as famous as Gerry, was the intense public interest in their family.

Gerry’s candid attitude and ability to be so open on the radio every morning made people fascinated by his personal life, which naturally resulted in some negative attention too.

His separation from Bonnie’s mother Morah after 26 years of marriage was on the cover of every newspaper in 2008, which was no doubt a strange sight for their five children.

When asked how she dealt with that growing up, Bonnie confessed: “I think that I’ve just never known any different.”

“In one way, I’m like, I know that’s not completely normal, but to me it is normal. It was just the way it always was.”

“My dad was always super famous. We would be out for dinner and people would be calling across the restaurant saying hello, and he would stop for everybody and chat to everyone, no matter if he knew them or not, and would talk to people on the street.”

“I’ve just never known any different…”

“If we were out on a walk in the evenings he would talk to people, and he would always say to us, ‘You always stop and talk to these people’. He just had time for everybody.

“Obviously when things are in the papers and stuff, it’s a little bit strange. But you’re just kind of like, that’s just life. Like I grew up going to events with my dad and going on red carpets or whatever.”

Bonnie recalled going to star-studded events like the Meteor Awards with her dad, and joked there’s a photo of her wearing white pointed boots on a red carpet that still haunt her to this day.

Bonnie’s dad Gerry died suddenly at the age of 53 on April 30, 2010 from cardiac arrhythmia.

The country went into a state of mourning after Gerry’s death, and his star-studded funeral was broadcast live online and to his listeners on RTÉ 2FM, marking the first time in its history that the station aired a mass.

While the public felt like they had lost a familiar friend on the radio, Bonnie and her family were grieving the Gerry no one else knew – who was always “just dad” at home.

Gerry’s funeral was a public spectacle, and photos of the Ryan family walking behind his coffin, in a moment so devastating and private, were splashed all over every news outlet in Ireland.

Looking back at that time, Bonnie told me: “It was so crazy. I feel like if that was to happen now, I don’t know if I would have… I don’t actually know how I did it. We just really locked in as a family.”

“We were always a close family. But when that happened, we like locked in as a family unit and we were just like, ‘This is going to be a s**t show and we need to just all have each other’s back.’ And we really did.”

“We just really locked in as a family”

“And you know what? Like I know that people saw what went on in my family and everything happening in real-time, but everyone goes through crap in families,” she said, before I pointed out that hers just so happened to be on the front page of the paper.

“That’s it,” she replied. “And I was with John then, and he’s just… Without him, I wouldn’t have gotten through this either because obviously we locked in as our family and we were there for each other. But then having him from day one, he’s just like my absolute rock.”

Bonnie and John had been together for two years at the time, and she said how he reacted to her father’s death made her realise he was ‘The One’.

“I was in love with John from day one, obviously. But when that happened, and obviously he was just a kid too, and I saw the way that nothing else in his life mattered except for me… He just stepped up so much and just seemed like a real adult.”

“I was just like, oh my God, I don’t even know how I hit the jackpot here. So I’m just very lucky that he was with me through all that, too. And I love that he also knew my dad. So I feel really lucky as well on that.”

Bonnie was just 17 when Gerry passed, and immediately went into “protective mode”.

“I coped as best as I possibly could. I think that the older I got, and in the last few years, I’ve maybe realised that my coping mechanism was to put on a really hard exterior and just pretend that everything’s fine,” she explained.

“I loved that people thought that I was a tough cookie, like I didn’t cry and I made jokes about it, but that was my way of dealing with it.

“I think that that’s what I’ve done for probably the first 12 years, was just act as if it wasn’t happening. And then in the last maybe two or three years now, I’ve started to be like, oh it’s okay to actually say things like I really miss my dad, or get upset with people I love, or talk about him and not make a joke of it. Maybe I’m just maturing. I don’t know why it’s changing now.”

“I coped as best as I possibly could”

I pointed out that she was probably “traumatised” for years after his death, and she said: “I think the dust started to settle and it took a long time. I definitely think that I just went into protective mode of my family.”

“I just went into just trying to literally just put one foot in front of the other for a long time. Now I feel like I’m like, ‘Whoa, I don’t know how I did that’. I don’t know how I got through it, even those years are just tough enough as 17/18/19 year old. They’re awkward years.

“You’re trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. You’re going to college, you’re dropping out of college. You’re trying to figure out who you are as a person, while also going through the loss of my parent, while it being on the front of every newspaper for so long.”

It’s been almost 15 years since she lost her dad, and while time is always a healer, Bonnie said you never really get over a loss like that.

“It’s so strange. Like if he walked in right now, I feel like it would just be completely normal. We would literally just be having a conversation and it would just feel normal that he was here with me,” she laughed.

“But I also feel like it feels so long. When I think of all the things I’d have to tell him about, I’m like, that makes time seem really far away. And also I think… You don’t ever really get over it.

“That initial shock pain is obviously gone now, but it’s been 15 years, so I’m like, I haven’t seen my dad in 15 years. I just really miss him now. So the longer it goes on, you just miss them so much, but the shock pain wears off. So I think they’re two very different sadnesses. But yeah, you just learn to deal.”

“I haven’t seen my dad in 15 years. I just really miss him now”

While Bonnie has no problem chatting away to me about her dad, it look her a long time to get to this point.

In the past, Bonnie and her siblings would have avoided any mention of Gerry when speaking to the press, and said they simply wanted everyone to “leave him alone”.

Bonnie said: “I think that for a long time, even if I was doing an interview after my dad had died, if they even said anything about my dad, I would just say ‘I’m sorry, I’m not speaking about that’.

“I think it was that protective thing, where I was just like, just leave him alone. I felt like for such a long time, he was on the front of every newspaper for so long, and I was just like, just leave him alone.”

“I just wanted him to be our little thing. I didn’t want to share him anymore. And now I’m just like, I don’t know, again maybe it’s just the healing process. I’m just a lot more able to talk about it.”

Now that she’s older, Bonnie has been able to look back on the incredible legacy her dad left behind, and confessed she’s in “awe” of the talent he had.

“He was just so incredibly talented, and I probably didn’t even realise that at the time, I was so young,” she said. “And then also to be such an open book with the whole country and have everybody love you so much is just so amazing.”

“It’s so cool that everywhere I go, people are like, ‘I loved your dad’. I’m just so proud of him, and I just feel very lucky that he was my dad. And look, I had him for 17 incredible years.

“I know he was somebody to everybody, but he was the best dad to us. At home, he was just dad, and he was at every school thing, every show, drove us to every dance class, and he was at every rugby game for my brothers. He was just the best dad you could have ever wished for. I really feel so lucky.”

“My mom’s the best, too. Of course. Poor mum probably doesn’t get the credit because she’s still around,” she joked. “But really, we are so lucky to have the parents that we’ve been given in this life.”

“I know he was somebody to everybody, but he was the best dad to us”

Bonnie has always been someone I’ve admired in the industry, and her and her siblings seem to possess the same genuine nature that helped their father capture the hearts of the nation.

A true testament to their parents, there’s no doubt Gerry’s children are the proudest part of the legacy he left behind.

“Obviously, siblings are going to kill each other sometimes. But I choose to be around my family over anybody else,” Bonnie said.

“They really are my best friends, and I feel so lucky for even the way we’ve been brought up and  the childhood that we’ve got to have and the way my parents, not that they made us best friends, but whatever way we’ve been raised, like we all love the feck out of each other.

“We really do love each other and love spending time together. I do feel lucky. But don’t tell them that though,” she laughed.

Growing up with your family under a microscope would no doubt have an affect on anyone, and while Bonnie is somewhat of an open book – she’s careful about what she shares online, particularly when it comes to her husband John.

To this day she’s never shared a photo of her partner’s face on social media, and explains why that is.

I asked if the press attention surrounding her family has made her more private about her personal life now, and Bonnie said: “I don’t know, I think it’s a little bit of a balancing act. I think more so just the online world is like, you’re so much more at reach to people than back when we were younger.”

“Like I love that my dad was able to share so much that people really felt like they knew him, and I want that in my social media. I really want people to feel like they know me and that we can have this connection and that kind of bond.

“But at the end of the day, my dad could leave work and go home, and our private life at home was our private life. But the whole of Ireland seems to feel like they knew everything, but they didn’t. So it’s trying to find that small line of like where do you cut things off? I suppose where I cut it off is with John.

“Like I’m happy to speak about him and things like that, but I also just want him to be able to live a completely normal life as well, if that’s what he wants. But yeah, it’s a fine line.

“I try and speak about him so people know, yes, he’s a real person. But also give him the grace to have his own privacy. You also don’t want poor John to have to go into all of his meetings and for everyone to be thinking, ‘Jesus, look at his wife’. So I like to give him the grace to be able to just be his own person.”

Bonnie has previously spoken about her hopes to start a family someday with John, and I wonder if she’d have the same approach when it comes to sharing her own children’s faces online.

“I think that I would try and keep it private, but not so private to the point that there’s this whole thing around it,” she told me.

“Because I even feel like sometimes now [with John], people will be like, ‘I can see him in the reflection of your sunglasses’ and stuff. And I’m like, it’s okay, I’m just in some way trying to give him a bit of privacy. If you catch his face, it’s okay.

“Do you know what, I don’t have kids right now, so I really don’t know. But I would like to try in some way give them their own privacy to make their own decisions and not have them plastered everywhere. That’s just the way I would do it. But also I’m not going to keep it a big secret.

“I think just to be cautious and careful and try and make sure that you’re being respectful for whenever they get older. I don’t want them to be like, ‘Why did you put me everywhere?’

“I think I’ll only fully be able to make a decision once I have kids. But I think that I would try and give them privacy, but also not keep them this big secret. And it’s also John’s decision, too. And we have spoken about what we think we’d do. But again, we have the conversation, and we’re just like yeah we’ll just see how we feel whenever that happens.”

For now, Bonnie is fully focused on her career – and she has big ambitions for where she wants it to go.

While she’s been navigating the influencer space over in NYC, which has been surprisingly “really welcoming”, she has been working behind the scenes on building her own “empire”.

In the past, Bonnie has collaborated with brands on signature collections, but now she wants to have her own brand – and teased it would be in the realm of both fashion and beauty.

“I want to have my own brand. That’s my goal,” she said. “But I just don’t want to rush it. So I’m working away at things in the background, things are in motion, but there is no timeline on it.

“I think for a while, I had set myself a deadline that I wanted to have something that I was working on brought out by, and I felt like I was rushing it, and then I wasn’t happy with what was happening. And I was like, okay, I just need to slow everything down.”

“I want an empire. That’s my goal”

“I’m also really enjoying where I’m at in my career right now. And when the next phase happens, it’s going to happen at the right time. So I think I’m just going to keep trucking away at what I have going on in the background, keep doing everything I’m doing right now, and I just know when the thing I’m working on comes out eventually, that I’ll be 100% happy, and it will be the right time.”

Bonnie said she really looks up to the likes of fellow influencers Pippa O’Connor and Suzanne Jackson, who have both launched successful fashion and beauty businesses.

“I think I would love to have both,” she explained. “But I’m working more so at the moment on trying to hone in on one. So hopefully… one thing at a time.”

“I want an empire. That’s my goal,” Bonnie said with a smile. “The goal is an empire. And I’m like, why not? Like we’re only young, we can have it all if we want. We just need to keep going.”

While she’s quietly focusing on building her own empire, Bonnie is also planning to launch her own podcast in 2025 – something she’s wanted to do for years.

It will be based on her life in the Big Apple, sharing the good places to go and what she gets up to weekly, and Bonnie said she would love it to be a “Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City” style podcast.

Speaking about her plans to join the digital airwaves, I asked Bonnie if she ever considered going down the radio route like her older sister Lottie – who has worked at RTÉ 2FM, the same station their father worked at, for several years.

“I never really did. I always said like never say never, but I just felt like my passion lied more in fashion and beauty,” she said.

“Then obviously with my social media, like in turn of doing these get ready with me’s or my stories, I was like, oh I’m a real yapper. I was like maybe there is something in this.

“So I think doing a podcast is a nice way of people getting to know you more, having your own place where you can just talk freely, and kind of incorporate that into your life as well. And I guess, obviously, being a bit of a chatter runs in my blood.”

“Being a bit of a chatter runs in my blood”

Another big thing that runs in Bonnie’s blood is performing, and years before she moved into makeup artistry and became a full-time influencer, she pursued a career in music.

She was a part of a girl band in her early teens, who went on tour with Westlife after attracting the attention of Louis Walsh when they performed on The Late Late Toy Show in 2006.

Bonnie eventually went solo, and released her debut single I’m Out in 2016. In her early 20s at the time, she had dreams of making it big as a singer – but she found out the hard way that the music industry wasn’t for her.

Looking back at that time, Bonnie confessed: “The industry scarred me. I think that I love singing and dancing and performing, but I hated everything else that came along with it. I found it really, really harsh.”

“The industry scarred me”

“Like the things that were said to me when I was going to meet with record labels and stuff in London. It was like, ‘You sound great. We love the songs you’re writing, but just make sure that you lose a stone’.

Bonnie also recalled being told she couldn’t have a boyfriend if she wanted to make it as a pop singer, and said: “It just wasn’t the career that I was envisioning it to be.”

“Singing and performing is a love of mine, and it always will be, but I just don’t think that it’s my career. I think you can love something but just not have it as your career. I think I’m a lot happier working in fashion and beauty than doing that.”

While she has no interest in reigniting her music career, Bonnie admitted she’d be open to opportunities in the theatre world.

When asked if she’d consider using her singing and dancing talents for a stage show someday, she replied: “I think I would definitely do something like that, but I don’t think I’d ever go into the world of being a pop singer or anything like that.

“We love theatre in my family. Even my dad’s family, his mum’s family owned the Gaiety years ago, and they were the costume makers in there. So we literally come from a theatre family.

“So I would definitely, if I ever got the chance to do something like that, like a touring show or a Bord Gais show of some sort, that’s the kind of thing I could see myself doing for a stint.”

I have no doubt we could potentially see Bonnie’s name in lights someday, but for now she’s happier than ever with her new life in New York, and she has no plans to move back to Ireland any time soon.

“Home is Ireland, I love Ireland, I love Dublin, hence why I am back all the time,” she said. “I come back regardless of work, even if I’ve already just been home and then there’s a job that I have to be home for, I’ll just come home because I’m happy to be here. But I’m not certain when I’ll come back.”

“I’m not certain when I’ll come back…”

“And I don’t even want to put the pressure on myself because, like I was saying earlier, I change my mind so quickly. So I could wake up in six months and be like ‘ok, it’s time to go back’. Or it could be sooner, or it could be more.

“I just don’t really know, and I think for a lot of my life, I’ve always had a really rigid plan. And I felt like if I put a lot of pressure on myself that, say if I said I was going for one year, even if I was miserable, I would have stuck it out for the year because I was like ‘I said this now, so I have to do it’. Whereas now I’m just like, I just want to be in my happy adventure era. I just want to enjoy myself and not make too many plans.

“I’m obviously working very hard, I put plans in place and I have goals that I want to achieve, but the more I’m letting life happen a little bit more rather than trying to make everything so super structured, I think it’s just so much more enjoyable and so much more fun. And it’s also allowed for a lot more stuff that I wasn’t expecting to come into my life. And I think that that’s just a more happy, fun way to be.”

Bonnie admitted she’s finally allowing herself to “go with the flow” more, after a hectic few years that were packed full of big milestone moments.

“I think so much actually happened in my life in the last few years. I moved out of my family home, I bought a house, I immediately got engaged, Covid happened, we were stuck inside,” she recalled.

“My whole world was turned upside down like everybody else, my job had to be completely altered in what I was doing, and then our wedding was postponed, then our wedding was on, then we were married, then I’m moving to a different country.”

“There was just so much stuff going on. And although there’s so much positive in that, like moving out and getting your own house is a really exciting thing. But there are stresses that come with that. And then the wedding, obviously exciting, but then there was stresses in it getting postponed. And then moving away was so exciting, but also there’s stress that comes along with that, too.

“And I just think over the last few months, I have just decided now, okay just let it all happen. Enjoy life, go with the flow. I know everyone has their times where things are going really well, and people have their times where life is a little bit tougher, and I just feel like right now I’m just open to everything and I’m happy right now.”

Referring back to Bonnie’s husband telling her “you’re more more you than I’ve seen you in years”, I asked if she’s finally feeling like she’s back to herself.

Bonnie replied: “Yeah, and it’s a funny feeling. I feel like I woke up a couple of months ago and I just didn’t have this weight on me anymore. I just woke up really happy. And you kind of have to check yourself sometimes and go, ‘God, I’m really happy today, like that’s great’.

“And that’s not that I wasn’t always happy, but I just think it’s important to appreciate when you’re just living life.

“I feel like we’re always getting ready for the next thing or the next day, and I need to plan what’s happening then and plan there. And it’s the first time ever that I’m actually just like, well, let’s just do today.”

“I woke up a couple of months ago and I just didn’t have this weight on me anymore”

“When you relax a little bit and then just try and enjoy life for where you are and what’s going on in that moment, I think that you reap the benefits of that. Work is going really, really well. Everyone in my life seems really happy. I’m happy.

“I’m enjoying myself outside of work as well. It’s not just all about work. I just feel like my overall life is happy. So I’m like, please can we all stay like this for as long as possible?”

Although Bonnie and John plan to stay in their “adventure era” for the foreseeable, the 32-year-old confirmed they definitely plan to move back to Ireland in the next five years.

Wrapping up my chat with Bonnie, I ask what she’d like life to look like once they’re settled back in Dublin.

“In five years I see myself hopefully building an empire of fashion and beauty, I genuinely feel like the sky is the limit when you put your mind to it,” she said.

“Outside of work I just want to be happy, healthy, and as in love as I am right now. I want to keep working hard and building on this life I have.”

“As long as I have John though and my family are healthy… everything else that comes will be a bonus.”

 

SHOOT CREDITS

Creative Director: Alexandra Ryan
Interview By: Kendra Becker
Photos & Video: Claire Boshell
Styling: Conor Leavy
Hair: Jordan Reddy
Makeup: Bonnie Ryan

STYLE CREDITS

Look 1 (Cover Shot)

Fur Coat – The Foundry €145

Sequin Top – The Foundry €65

Skirt – Zara €25.95

Shoes – Stylists Own

Rings – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €85 & Bonnie’s own

Look 2 

Dress – & Other Stories €99

Shoes – Valentino @ Brown Thomas €890

Bracelet – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €95

Rings – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €85 & Bonnie’s own

Look 3 

Jumper – M&S €36

Skirt – & Other Stories €99

Boots – Isabel Marant @ Brown Thomas €860

Bag – Stylists own

Look 4 

Dress – The Foundry €169

Shoes – Valentino @ Brown Thomas €890

Tights – Tights Department

Bag – Stylists own

Bracelet – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €95

Look 5 

Dress – Ríon Hannora (Price on Request)

Coat – Ríon Hannora (Price on Request)

Boots – Carvela @ Brown Thomas €195

Look 6

Shirt – M&S €70

Skirt – M&S €125

Shoes – Stylists Own

Necklace – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €120

Rings – Crystals & Co X Bonnie Ryan €85 & Bonnie’s Own

Look 7

Black Sequin Dress – Zara €39.95