Gaybo: My big regret is working in RTÉ for too long
GAY Byrne has spoken about regretting the amount of time he dedicated to his career in RTÉ.
The legendary broadcaster revealed that he wishes he had taken more time off work to be with his family and his two daughters during their childhood.
The 83-year-old, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016, spoke about his ‘gruelling’ treatment for the disease and his fear that his doctor, Professor John McCaffrey, could tell him this morning that he will have to endure more chemotherapy.
Byrne, speaking on the Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1, said: ‘I have great regrets. I have only brief memories...
‘Thank God they were girls in so far as if they’d been boys it would have been very serious.
‘I have only brief little snatches of memories of Crona and Suzy growing up around the place and I regret that.
‘But generally speaking I regret now the amount of time I gave to this place.
‘It was an awful lot of time and I should have taken time to do other things and I had the opportunity to do other things but I was dedicated to the place.’
But he insisted he isn’t angry as he had wanted to be a broadcaster from the age of 14 and he had ‘lived his dream’.
‘Now it’s too late and I can’t do it any longer because I have a crutch,’ he added.
Mr Byrne also revealed that he takes 18 tablets a day and gets very agitated on them, saying: ‘It’s like you are going to have a semi heart attack, and you don’t know what it’s all about and you have to try and control yourself as hard as you can.’
I should have done other things
He also admitted he was nervous about a meeting this morning with Prof. McCaffrey as he fears he could be told he needs to undergo more chemotherapy.
He said: ‘I am scared witless that tomorrow he is going to say sorry, you gotta go back.
‘I hope he doesn’t. I pray he doesn’t.
‘I see no reason why he should, but it’s a horror of horrors,’ he said.
Mr Byrne describe his eight sessions of chemotherapy treatment as ‘gruelling’ and praised his wife Kathleen, his daughters and sonin-law for caring for him during his illness.
He continued: ‘I hate to think of myself being a burden on her [Kathleen] and slowing down her life.
‘She’s in remarkably good health, she very active, she’s the same age as I am and we’ve been married .... our 54th anniversary is coming up in June.
‘It’s amazing, she looks after me so well and she keeps an even temper and she knows that when I act up, as I do regularly, it’s the tablets. It’s the chemicals within you, which are forcing all of these things to happen and that’s the effect they have,’ he added.
Byrne hosted the Late Late Show for a record-breaking 37year run between 1962 and 1999.