Living a busy life with Lucy Kennedy
WHEN Lucy Kennedy walks out onto the set of TV3’s new Seven O’Clock Show tonight, the petite presenter will emulate the laid-back professionalism of Ant and Dec or Davina McCall.
“I think the TV presenters who are liked are the ones who are the same on telly as they are in real life,” Kennedy says. Since beginning on RTÉ’s The Podge and Rodge Show and then on her Living with Lucy series, Kennedy has been loved for her ladetteism, husky voice and self-effacing style. Not unlike Davina, she seems genuinely interested in her guests.
“The people I like to watch are Ant and Dec and Davina McCall. They’re the type of people who you would like to go for a pint with. That’s what makes a successful presenter, in my mind, so being super-skinny just isn’t part of it,” says Kennedy, who has been on a diet-and-exercise regime since Christmas.
This week heralds the end of TV3’s Late Lunch Live programme. With co-presenter Martin King, Kennedy is leaving daytime TV behind to launch the nightly Seven O’Clock Show this evening.
Mother-of-two Kennedy, 38, is delighted with her promotion to prime-time. “It’s really exciting for us. It’s another challenge, as well, but we’ll take it in our stride, like we do everything”, she says. The new show is only an hour, so it will be tighter than the Late Lunch Live and viewers can expect more expert contributors.
In 2014, Kennedy, who blogs on MummyPages.ie, was voted best celebrity role model by Irish mums, winning 80% of the vote.
She is proud of the title as she knows working motherhood can run you ragged. “I admire and applaud every single working mother out there, because you have to give everything you have to both jobs”.
Kennedy manages by being organised. “I would consider myself a pretty organised person. I have a family-planner in the kitchen and I write everything down. At night, I lay mine and the children’s clothes out and even remember to defrost dinners, or at least have an idea of what were going to eat the next evening,” she says. “You always have to plan and think ahead. That’s the key…..of course, it helps that I’m a naturally energetic person.”
Her mommy blog is candid. First, there was the guilt that plagues her. “Yes, there are days when one of the children is sick .... or just days when they want to be with me and me with them. That’s not easy. I feel guilty that I can’t physically be in two places at the same time, or guilty that I have to leave. I feel guilty that I don’t have more hands or more time in the day. I feel guilty when I know they’d rather I collected them some days, but I can’t”.
“I was so flattered by the role-model award, but I am only doing what everyone else is doing, the only difference is I’m doing it on TV,” she says.
And it seems that even TV presenter moms can feel inadequate at the school gates. Kennedy has also written about ‘those moms’: “I can’t help but stare with envy, awe, admiration, anger and bewilderment at some mums... At 8am, they’re dressed immaculately with full make-up on, their hair beautifully blow-dried and they float with an air of self-control and elegance”.
In her job, there is an added pressure to look svelte and groomed. You also can’t yawn through an interview if you’ve been awake all night with a teething baby.
But Kennedy says she doesn’t feel under pressure to be slim . “I’m the Bridget Jones of Irish telly,” she says. “I’m never going to be perfect or super-skinny.”
In the past, Kennedy has done the ‘Made to Measure’ diet, living on 500 calories a day for three weeks. She says the diet was healthy and she didn’t experience hunger. It was a radical attempt to lose weight after baby number-two and before filming a documentary for RTÉ.
This year though she has shed ten pounds of post-Christmas bulge in just six weeks, through the Forza challenge, which is made up of natural supplements, low-carb eating and working out four times a week.
Kennedy’s ambition going forward? To become addicted to exercise.
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