AISLING O’LOUGHLIN
reveals the highs and lows of life after Xposé
As Aisling O’Loughlin clasps a a warm cup of tea in both hands and peers over at the roaring fire, she seems sedate and relaxed, happily chatting about her new life, filled with babies, toddlers and homemaking. It is a very different type of busy lifestyle.
Just 12 months ago, she was chasing celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic for Xposé. Now she is ‘changing nappies and paying bills’.
There is a quote that sticks in her head from celebrated critic and author Cyril Connolly that she mulled over when she first took voluntary redundancy that sums up her current situation: ‘ There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall’.
Connolly was touching on a larger point: namely that, when you become a parent, your art is no longer the single biggest priority in your life, to which you dedicate all your time and energy – and that can feel like a compromise at first. The creative process can be very selfish, in that you have to shut yourself away without distractions, and that’s no longer possible. It is a situation that Aisling says she was happy to surrender into.
‘Life is good, funnily enough,’ says the mother of Patrick, 5, Louis, 3, and one-year- old Joseph. ‘With all this change, incredibly, I think I’ve had one of the best years of my life. I just took my foot right off the gas. I’ve gone from being incredibly busy to not being busy at all. There’s something amazing in that.
‘I actually really like not being busy. I’m busy at home but it’s a different sort of busy. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking I have to get dressed, get the children dressed, get them out the door, get to a destination and look a certain way, at least get some make-up on. That anxiety of having to be somewhere in a certain state is gone.
‘I have my own timetable now. I write a lot when the kids are in bed and I get to bring Patrick to school now looking wrecked and then I can have my shower when I get back. I get to take things at my ease. Initially I was quite agitated by all that