Brendan Courtney: ‘Everyone needs to do counselling – it is brilliant’
Brendan Courtney is amassing an impressive multi-hyphenate career. He’s a TV presenter/fashion designer/equality advocate — and since lockdown, a 5km runner too. The common strand in everything he does seems to be a concern for mental health, whether it’s getting out and going for a run to boost his own mood or making a decision early in his career not to engage with negative reality TV that could be damaging to the participants.
There are some raw, emotional moments in the new series of , as celebrities revisit former homes, and sometimes dark moments of their lives. However, Brendan draws a firm distinction between the type of reality television that he turned his back on (after once being asked by documentary producers to hide Boy George’s passport “so they could film him freaking out”) and the format of the show he has created.
The first four guests of the new series — Mary Coughlan, Christy Dignam, Linda Martin and Sharon Shannon — are unified by the common theme of music. “They all had very dark days, but music was there as a kind of a solace and a friend,” says Brendan.
“They bring us to the places where those events occurred, and they're really open and really eloquent, so it's very emotional.”
It’s something all the celebrities were well-equipped for, as he credits them all with being very strong people.
The episode with Linda Martin brought one of the most profound moments — when they visit the house in Belfast where her mother had died.
"You know, it's breathtaking, looking at the corner where the bed was — it was really, really powerful,” he recalls.
Reflecting on why the participants were willing to open up and revisit sometimes painful memories to this extent, Brendan muses: “I think there's a general consensus that it is actually very powerful and rewarding to admit vulnerability.”
“For the person talking about vulnerability or mental health or abuse, or whatever it is, every time you talk about it, it loses its power. Christy Dignam said that to me. I asked ‘Did you ever feel uncomfortable talking about what happened to you as a child?’ And he said ‘No, because every time I talk about it, it loses more power.’ I thought that was really interesting — actually the cathartic nature of talking about hard times is very rewarding.”
Brendan’s mother is a counsellor and he has been through several rounds of therapy in his life, and is evangelical about how valuable it is.
“I think we're at a point in our culture where we acknowledge that it's completely normal and okay to talk about vulnerability, mental health, difficult times, triumph in adversity, failure; all the things that would have been taboo as little as 10 or 15 years ago… because it will empower or inspire somebody who might be going through a similar thing.
“When you go to the first counselling session, you’re nipping in the door — you don’t want anyone to see you — and, by the time you get to the eighth one, you’re high-leg kicking, doing the can-can out the door, saying ‘Everybody needs to do this, this is brilliant’.”
After his first experience with therapy, in his early 20s, Brendan swore: “If I ever make millions, I’m going to buy everybody I know counselling sessions.”
In the first series of , viewers loved the episode with Anne Doyle: “People got to see her cheekier side!”.
Brendan thinks seeing another side of a public figure is one of the reasons people love the show. "What I didn't expect, and I think what people really like is, you think you know these people that we feature because they're national treasures or celebrities, and then you see a different side of them that you didn't know existed.”
Another draw is definitely the opportunity to sneak a peek inside the celebrity’s house and, for interior design fans, the episode with Mary Coughlan is sure to be a treat. Brendan describes her current home as “unbelievable” and a far cry from what he jokingly imagined might have been a “thatched cottage with fiddles on the wall”.
It was the curiosity factor that inspired the show, admits Brendan. “We’re a nosy nation and we also have a big obsession with property.”
Another thing keeping him busy throughout lockdown has been the huge amount of work involved in completing a Masters in equality, diversity and inclusion. He didn’t go back to school alone; friend and business associate Sonya Lennon, co-designer of the Lennon Courtney brand, is also among the cohort on the innovative course in IADT.
“This Masters is very interesting because it's the first ever in Europe through business, where a course like this would normally be done through humanities. It makes the business case and it's quite grown up in its approach that you can try and convince corporate and commercial ventures as to why the policy works.”
The policy in question is that of greater diversity in business — research has repeatedly shown that diversity in executive teams is linked to greater financial performance. Diversity is a broad term that covers gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
As the first openly gay television presenter in Ireland and a campaigner for Marriage Equality, Brendan has frequently been called upon to speak at events, and one of his motivations for doing the Masters was to deepen his knowledge.
What he has learned is informing work he and Sonya are doing with their Lennon Courtney brand at Dunnes Stores.
"Women have been putting themselves absolutely last. They've been doing all the heavy lifting: 80% of frontline workers are female; women have been giving up paid work to take up domestic care — women do three times more domestic care, home care and cleaning than men do.”
He notes that, even though women make most of the household purchasing decisions, they are putting themselves last and, throughout the pandemic, online sales of homewares, kids’ clothes and menswear have remained strong, while women’s clothing across the industry in general has “fallen off a cliff”, although their brand has continued to perform strongly with online sales.
With regard to fashion being deemed a non-essential item, he is incensed. “It was obviously a group of stupid white men decided that clothes were non-essential. It's illegal to walk around naked, in case anybody didn't know, so clothes are essential,” he emphasises.
“There were no women at the table when that decision was made, let me tell you.”
With a new Lennon Courtney spring collection launching at the end of the month, he is looking forward to creating a celebratory moment, with unlimited free tickets being made available for an online launch event called ‘Finding Your Mojo’, featuring not only fashion and beauty, but also workshops on confidence and empowerment.
The new collection will, of course, be influenced by the effects of the pandemic on our lifestyles, with softer lines and an emphasis on comfort and the feel of fabrics. However, Brendan promises a sprinkling of ‘wow pieces’ to appease the glamour addicts.
"We really feel passionate about the fact that women are doing all the heavy lifting, get none of the thanks and are putting themselves last.
"We can see that in terms of the sales — we’re very privileged to have access to that information, and so we want to try and use it for good. We're a brand that empowers confidence and equality, and that's the core of our message.”
- The new series of 'Keys to My Life' airs on RTÉ One at 7.30pm on Sunday, April 11.
