Humour wins out for Kathryn Thomas

The Voice presenter Kathryn Thomas has told how she feels it is much easier to be a TV star in Ireland than in America.

The 35-year-old presenter said down-to-earth Irish audiences are looking for conversation and humour instead of Hollywood-style glamour.

The popular TV host told TV3’s Late Lunch Live she doesn’t feel under undue pressure to look good for her roles in RTÉ’s two biggest TV shows, Operation Transformation and The Voice.

She said: “Do I feel more pressurised because I am on television? No, because I think the Irish audience like watching Irish people on television.

“I’ve been over to the States and been in studios there where all the people on television are the same. They’re stick insect, big boobs, white teeth, big hair and it’s that sort of same look.

“I think (with) Irish people it’s about conversation and humour and engaging. I don’t think I feel any more or less pressure being on television.

“I’m 35 now, come back to me when I’m 40”, she joked.

However, she said she does have the same insecurities as any woman about her appearance.

She said: “I have the same hang-ups and have a bad hair day or a bad body day, or whatever it is.”

Meanwhile she joked that she recently moved in with her restaurateur boyfriend, Pádraig McLoughlin, because of his culinary skills.

“The only reason we moved in is because he is actually quite a good chef.

So when people say: ‘Was it the right time?’, he can cook! That’s a good time. That was the criteria”, she laughed.