Culture That Made Me: Cork podcaster and influencer Julie Haynes
Julie Haynes brings her Left on Read podcast to the Cork Podcast Festival. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Born in 1988, Julie Haynes grew up in Greenmount, Cork city. In 2017, she started her Instagram account, Twins N’ Me, and has gone on to become a key influencer, cataloguing the challenges as a single mom of raising young twins in Cork. She also co-presents the popular Left on Read podcast with London-based TV producer Brenda Dennehy. The Left on Read podcast will perform as part of the Cork Podcast Festival at Cork Opera House, 8pm, Friday, 6 September. See: www.corkpodcastfestival.ie.
My first concert was Westlife in Dublin at the Point Theatre. I went with my mom. I was maybe nine. It was jammers. Obviously the lads were on the stage, and they're singing away and waving. I was convinced one of them was waving at me, and I was waving back at him. I was crying. I was jumping around the place. Ever since then, they were my husbands and I was marrying them. That’s the moment I fell in love for the first time.
When I was very young, I watched a video tape of Homeward Bound morning, noon and night. It was about a family. The kids had two dogs and a cat. They went on holiday so they gave the pets to this farmer to mind while they were away. The pets didn’t want to stay there. They wanted to go home so they left the farm. They went through woodlands and up and down mountains to reunite with the kids. When the kids found out on holidays the dogs and the cat were gone they were hysterical. At the end of the movie [spoiler alert] the pets made it home. I used to be balling crying watching it, a gorgeous movie.
Growing up, I loved Sister, Sister. It was a TV series about twins. Funnily enough, I went on to have my own set of twins. Basically, it was about what they got up to in an American high school, falling in love and breakups. They had an annoying friend, a neighbour, a boy who was stone mad about the two of them. It was harmless, but I loved it.
My go-to, to relax in the evening, is any crime or thriller like the wife might have killed the husband. I love true crime stories. Don't give me love. Don't give me girly comedy. Don’t give me a dog dying, but give me your man who murdered the wife. Happy-out all evening then. I’m obsessed with those documentaries.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Fall. The main guy in it, Jamie Dornan, is your man from Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s edge-of-your-sit viewing.
It’s about a family man, a brilliant father, set in Northern Ireland. Behind it all he’s a serial killer. Mad how he was living this lovely, perfect life, but he was actually a murderer. It was an eye-opener. You don't know anybody! One minute he's the doting dad at the sidelines of his son’s soccer match, the next minute he's out killing somebody. It was really good.
I loved The Devil Wears Prada. It’s a chick flick, but a good one. The acting's fabulous. There's an easy-going storyline. It’s about a girl, Anne Hathaway, who wants to be a fashion journalist. She goes off to New York to work for some magazine and the main editor – played by Meryl Streep – is really mean, but she stuck with it. It's a lovely watch.
I'm not a big book reader, but I have the podcast with Brenda and I was asked there recently, “Where is Peig Sayers from?” I panicked. I said, “Knocknaheeny” because I knew there was a school in Knocknaheeny called Peig Sayers. The thing is after going viral. It was played all over the radio. You name it. So I was given the challenge to read Peig Sayers. I’ve only just started it. So far it’s very boring.
I listened to the Scamanda podcast. Basically, this woman out in the USA faked she had cancer. She set up a GoFundMe page. Everybody was helping her out. She made a fortune pretending she had cancer and two kids. They're saying the husband didn't know, that she was living a double life, telling the husband she was very sick, shaving her hair, and everything, and there was nothing wrong with the girl.
Another great podcast I listened to was People Who Knew Me. It’s about a woman working in the Twin Towers in 2001. She cheated on her husband with a guy she worked with. On the day the two planes hit the Twin Towers, she found out she was pregnant by the guy she was having the affair with, and she never went into work. She faked her death. She packed up her bags and went to live in California. Her husband thought she was killed. The baby’s daddy was actually killed in the Twin Towers. She had the baby and lived a new life under a new name. Years later, this woman had cancer so she had to confront her past. It’s fascinating. I lost sleep over it because it was constantly in my ears.
I like The 2 Johnnies. They work so well together. I love the craic. They’re very relatable. It's a feelgood episode every week. I'd be laughing away to myself listening to them for the hour. They’re two lunatics.
When Smacks, for example, went on holiday last year to Ibiza he could not cope. He was telling us all about it, that the scene isn't for him. I was picturing him out there. I couldn't stop laughing. That was such a good episode.
Someone I admire is Nicola Tallant. I like her Crime World podcast. She tells a really good story. She came out with a story recently about a man living in Cork city and he had murdered a woman from Ballyphehane over 40 years ago. It only went to trial recently. I don’t like when narrators jump backwards and forwards with dates. She always tells the story straightforwardly, which I love.
Because I'm a mom, I like following moms on social media. I like to see what they're up to, to see how they get on. Maybe they went on holiday and they'll come back and I can get tips and tricks from them. They make me feel less alone. One minute, I could love the kids and the next minute I could sell them. If they come on, and say, “Jeez, I’m having a hard day with the kids,” I go, Thank God, it's not just me. I’m having a hard day as well and it's normal. There's a Clare lady, and her name is Crazy Caroline and I'm fond of her. She’s on Instagram and she's lovely.
