Getting a tummy lift gave me contractions ...it put me off having another treatment
Ireland AM presenter on life behind & in front of the cameras
KAREN Koster has told how getting a tummy lift procedure felt like contractions, turning her off fat-zapping gimmicks for life.
The presenter hung up her Xpose mic last March after 12 years at the helm of the Virgin Media entertainment show to take a seat on the Ireland AM couch.
Karen has always been a hard grafter, first filling in for Alan Hughes presenting the weather in her 20s and honing her craft as a researcher on the show she would eventually host.
And the mum of three told how she’s more body confident than ever and rarely gets offered free cosmetic procedures, except for a tummy lift that she would rather forget.
The Dublin beauty told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I wish I got offered stuff, I tried a tummy thing and it felt like I was having contractions again so I was like absolutely no way, I cannot do this for a fourth time.
“It was some kind of tummy lift, where they put an electrical current into your lower abdomen.
FLASHBACKS
“I just went for one session and said I won’t be back.
“I was just getting flashbacks to being in the delivery room, I go easy on myself now, I’m not as hard on myself as I used to be.”
Mum to Finn, five, JJ, three, and one-and-a-half-year-old Eve, Karen credits motherhood as the reason for her svelte figure.
The 38-year-old said: “I thank God for giving me three kids, I run around after them, I’m probably a bit lighter than I used to be because I’m more active.
“I’d love to be back in the gym. I’m OK with how my body is right now, I don’t feel too fat, I’m also aware that this isn’t for ever. Eve is not going to want to be up on my hip for the rest of her life.
“I see how the boys need me a bit less, I could skip out of the house for an hour to go to the gym if I wanted to.
“I know my husband John would be fine with that but I don’t because I guess the guilt creeps in again because I’m away from my children so much for work.”
The former French and English Trinity College student explained how learning on the job was the best experience.
Coming runner-up on the RTE talent search show Selection Box in 2001 was just the start of Karen’s TV presenting career.
She added: “I always had a fascination with TV and had the bug. I never wanted to travel, I just wanted to get
stuck into TV.” Karen explained that hard work and never giving up led to her dream gig.
She said: “I watched Lorraine Keane doing her entertainment reports, I would have been glued to the TV.
“I sent off a million CVS. I wasn’t lucky in the early days but managed to get jobs as a runner here and there.
“I got a job as a runner in RTE, working on Ryan Tubridy’s quiz show before he was destined for the Late Late.
“Then I saw an ad for TV3 and got a job filling in for Alan Hughes on weather,
I always had a fascination with TV and had the bug. I just wanted to get stuck in.. KAREN KOSTER ON WANTING TO WORK IN TV FROM A YOUNG AGE
so I was on air on Fridays and then the rest of the time researching and making tea. “I got the foot in the door and gradually got drip fed. It was the best apprenticeship ever because I hadn’t studied media in college, I learnt more in those three years than I did in Trinity. “I regretted not studying media but it was one of these things. I just didn’t know, I had this belief that doors would open when I got to college, but I had to go in a roundabout way to end up in TV. “But then I hit the ground running and loved it, I’m 16 years now in Virgin Media
One.” Karen admits making time count for her kids during her hectic schedule presenting Ireland AM is her priority.
She added: “I’m trying to be the best mum I can be, I want to deliver in work, I want to have time for me and John.
“You do feel like you’re falling down in some areas, like I might forget to call my mum in a few days.
“I have always said this even when Finn was a tiny baby and he was my first, whatever happens even on a terrible day just make them count.
“I always make sure bedtime is a good priority. I don’t race through the bedtime story, so I feel like I haven’t spread myself so thin. At the end of the day I’ll recap and say I’m absolutely wrecked but they got a home-cooked meal.
“I played with them, I read three bedtime stories and tickled Eve until she was crying laughing.”
Karen married her long-term partner, 47-year-old businessman John Maguire, in 2013.
The wedding in Taormina, Sicily, had an intimate gathering of 50 guests.
The pair are still as loved up as ever but she admits date nights and communication are key these days, with such a young brood to care for.
She said: “We’ve got a new babysitter and that’s been a game changer so we can get out just the two of us.
“But honestly we’re happiest when we’re all together with the kids and we go for early dinners at 5pm.
“We’re very open with each other, if something’s bothering us, we have three people who need us, before we’d be flying around and our biggest concern would be where are we going for drinks on a Friday night.
“Now we’ve all the logistics of school pick-ups, we’re a good team and generally don’t have barneys, we’re out of the baby fog.”