Lucy Kennedy: ‘I’m being me, a tired mum of three’
Lucy Kennedy at The Gibson Hotel. Pictures: Nina Val
“Suppository?” Lucy Kennedy says, cracking me up for the umpteenth time in under an hour. We’ve somehow segued into talking about iron supplements (I have absorption issues) and her somewhat unorthodox suggestion has me in stitches.
Her desire to help, though, is genuine and the moment is classic Kennedy: a mix of warmth, humour, and that impossible-to-fake authenticity that’s become her hallmark.
Kennedy — whose career choices in school were “journalism or a pilot” (she pursued neither) — got her TV break presenting dating show in 2005, but it was her subsequent hosting stint on that made the viewing public sit up and take notice.
She held her own — “I had to. I was the only human,” she says — against Ballydung Manor’s terrible twosome, puppets Podge and Rodge, who had no compunctions about insulting their guests.
The show was filthy and funny and often crossed the line into being downright offensive. It wouldn’t be commissioned now, I say to Kennedy.
“Oh God no!” she says emphatically. “Now, it would be illegal. Completely. The funny thing is, when I look back, I would have been 30, and I promise you, hand on my heart, a lot of stuff they said, I laughed, but a lot of it went over my head. I didn’t always get the very rude bits. Until someone would say to me, ‘Jesus…’, and I’d think, ‘oh no! THAT’S what it is’.”
In the green room, after the show, Kennedy would frequently find herself apologising profusely to the often shell-shocked guests.
“And I’d see [the puppeteers] in my eyeline, leaving the building, looking at me, saying, ‘ha!’, because they had their anonymity. Whereas I was still me. I spent my life apologising, but I have to admit, they were absolutely hysterical. It was a different time.”
The 48-year-old Dubliner has long moved on from potty-mouthed puppets; her reality TV show , which began in 2008, has thrived and moved with her from RTÉ, where she spent 10 years, to Virgin Media.
Another season of the hit show is, she says, “definitely” on the cards. She’s lived with 60 stars at this point, having persuaded everyone from Katie Price to Barry Keoghan to let her move in for a weekend.
Are celebrities more reluctant to let a camera crew into their homes now, compared to when she started out?
“It depends on the person. The kind of person that lets me in now either needs the publicity or doesn’t care. In that they’ve been there, done it. Say like Gazza, Paul Gascoigne”— the troubled ex pro-footballer — “He doesn’t need the money. He doesn’t need the fame. A lot of people just do it for the craic.”
Kennedy sees herself as “a nosy next-door neighbour” and that’s largely why the show works.
She asks the questions she knows viewers want answered, but her probing doesn’t come across as prying, largely because of her ability to build trust in jig time.
“They know I’m not going in there to try and find the scoop or dish the dirt,” she says of the celebs.
“I’m always trying to push the other person to the forefront and I think that’s why people are so relaxed with me because I’m not presenting, I’m just being me. They know that I’m a tired mum of three (she and husband Richard Governey are parents to Jack, 14, Holly, 12, and Jess, seven), and I’m just genuinely going in to hang out with them.”
Tired mum she may be, but she seems to thrive on a demanding schedule. On weekdays, she co-hosts on Classic Hits from the ungodly hour of 6am — “I almost try to resign every November. Because I go, I just can’t do this anymore.
“I’m so tired,” she says, only half-joking. She and Hayes were thrown together to cover Gerry Ryan’s 2FM slot in the wake of his untimely death in 2010, and clicked from day one — Hayes is, she says, “the big brother that I never wanted but that I adore”.
She’s always been self-employed, which partly explains the need to have multiple projects on the go, but her driving force seems to be curiosity and an intention to live life on her terms, doing projects that she’s passionate about.
Her children’s books are one such passion project. She was initially approached by publishers Gill when she was presenting , and, feeling she was too busy, said “not now”.
At the time, friends told her she was “mad”, saying, “that was your chance, that was your opportunity”.
A year later, Gill got back in touch, and Kennedy agreed, saying “now’s the time”.
Fast-forward a few years and her sixth book in the series, , is just about to be published.
It follows the adventures of sisters Emme, Holly and Jess Dixon on a house swap in the Gallic capital — while Jess Gets Her Wings, her first picture book, was released earlier this month.
The lavishly illustrated books are absorbing and funny, with well-drawn characters and rich storylines. Kennedy “always wanted to write about fairies” and her publishers were enthusiastic.
“At the time, Holly was four and tiny and Jess was a brand new baby. So I was very much in the fairy zone, as a lot of parents are.” The first book “just poured out of me” Kennedy says, and she hasn’t stopped since.
“I’m just writing consistently. When I’m writing, I’m in my own little world… I think writing is my therapy… It’s my switch-off time.”
She is “currently considering writing a book for adults”. And the genre? “I think there’s a holiday book [popular fiction] in me. I just need to find the time to write it.”
Adult themes are very much to the fore in her latest TV show, , currently airing on Virgin Media.
It’s a deep dive into four disparate worlds: mediums (Kennedy, “a medium’s dream” was told she was “ a tortured nun” in a past life), the transgender community, scammers and addiction.
The episode from which she learned the most was the one about the “transgender community, without a shadow of a doubt,” she says, explaining that, like most of us, scammers were on her radar, as were people who’ve struggled with addiction or alcoholism, “whereas, when it came to the transgender community, I knew nothing.
“I knew the very basics. I learned so much. And I met so many nice, brave people.”
Her role, she says, “was to give them the space to tell their story.” It’s what she does best.
Child… it would be the Famous Five.
Teenager… Do you remember Sweet Valley High? Brilliant.
Fifty Shades of Grey. It's so bad. Awful. Love Jamie Dornan, but awful book.
My love of people, I think.
Elton John, .
Vaseline.
A very spicy pepperoni pizza. And a massive bottle of Chardonnay.
I'm not really a podcaster, to be completely honest. I'm the only person in Ireland who isn't.
But I do quite like Abbey Clancy and Peter Crouch [ podcast].
It's hysterical. Oh, and .
If there's a piano, and I've had a few drinks, I will find it. I'll find it in a hotel. Never sing.
But I have about three songs on the piano. I don't even know their names.
- Lucy Kennedy's latest book The Friendship Fairies go to Paris, published by Gill, is available for pre-order now.
- Lucy will be signing copies of her books at 12pm on Nov 16 at Eason, Mahon Point in Cork and at 12pm on Sunday, November 17 at Eason, The Crescent in Limerick
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