Greg O'Shea shares mental health struggles in emotional chat with Doireann Garrihy

Greg O'Shea shot to fame after winning Love Island in 2019. Picture: Moya Nolan

Greg O’Shea has opened up about his struggles with mental health and how things got “really, really bad” for him in an emotional chat with friend and podcast host, Doireann Garrihy.

Speaking on The Laughs of Your Life podcast, 27-year-old Greg shared the tough period in his life and revealed that Doireann’s advice had helped him through some of his darkest days, leaving the host in tears.

After winning Love Island alongside Amber Gill in 2019, the Limerick native went back to his career in rugby and after some time, he found himself alone in London without a career and unsure of what he was going to do.

But it was a moment at home in Ireland that pushed Greg to seek help.

“I was back in Dublin, and I was driving around and it got really, really bad. It got overwhelming at one stage. I was behind the wheel of the car, and I was like, this is going one of two ways now, Greg. And I don’t want to get too dark on the podcast, but it was basically a decision of alright, this is all over or bring yourself to the doctor right now,” he tells Doireann.

“Thank God I did, I drove myself to the doctor and I was like, ‘I need to speak to someone right now’.” The doctor visit was the help he needed but after going on “pretty heavy medication”, things got “really, really bad for a few months”.

Doireann Garrihy and Greg O'Shea pictured at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby day at the Curragh Racecourse. Picture: Lorraine O'Sullivan

“No one knew. My best friend I lived with didn’t know. I told my mom because for some reason you always just have to talk to your mom,” he says.

“I kind of woke up one day and I was like, ‘alright Greg, you just have to man up, man’ and — you’ll think I’m going to make this up — I literally remember you saying to me the quote that you always live by: no one gives a f*ck about you.

“Do you remember you told me that?” he asks Doireann as she starts to well up.

Greg explains that he took this to mean that no one is going to do the work for him, so he had to do it for himself.

“And it was such a hit in the face, I was like, no one is going to come to this door, Greg and give you a job so you have to go and make it f*cking happen for yourself,” he continues.

“And I sat down and — sorry, I’m starting to get emotional now — I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen, and I just started writing on the piece of paper. I was like, what do I care about? And I just wrote down family, friends and I was like, I love fitness and I love presenting.” 

From there, he explains that he decided he was going to surround himself with family and friends while also doing his best to try and get a job in presenting and creating a fitness app.

He went “hell for leather” and after plenty of calls, “eventually the work started coming through”, he says. After some time, he decided he was ready to come off his medication.

“Now I’ve gotten to the stage where after the New Year, just before my birthday... I took myself off those drugs," he says.

 Sharing the clip to social media, Doireann said she was “so grateful” to Greg for his honesty during their conversation.

“I truly believe what he has to say about his own mental health struggles will be massively helpful to many people, particularly men.” 

The full episode of The Laughs of Your Life is out on Monday, September 26. 

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