Jenny: Love is in the airwaves for Ray & me
Couple ‘more flirty on radio’ as real life gets in the way of romance
JENNY Kelly has revealed her hubby Ray D’arcy is more flirty with her on radio than in real life.
She said the pair feel most connected when chatting in an intimate radio setting – joking that they should carry around microphones to keep the spark alive.
Jenny, 51, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We’re more flirty on air than off. Our romance has always been through having chats.
“We joked that we should constantly go around with two mics between us.
“If you are on air, it’s so intimate. You’re locking eyes, you’re talking and really listening.
“That doesn’t happen in day-today life. You’re looking at your phone or there’s a kid shouting.”
Jenny first met Ray at Today FM in 2005 and they married in 2013. They are parents to Kate, 16, and 11-yearold Tom. She produced Ray’s Today FM show until they moved to RTE in 2014, but quit radio for good in 2016.
Jenny said she was shocked by the reaction to her decision to become a stay-at-home mum.
She added: “I kind of thought I’d get people going ‘fair play to you’ or ‘well done’. But I actually got kick back, almost like I was letting the side down.”
She explained how the couple’s hectic combined schedule meant something had to give.
Jenny added: “When I left radio, one of the main reasons was we were both doing the same job.
“I felt like nobody was steering the ship or doing the mundane stuff. That was one of the big reasons why I stepped back.
“We’re trying our best and we think that we’re failing at nearly everything and filled with self doubt. I call the negative voice in my head Jane, if she’s putting the self doubt into my head I say ‘f**k off Jane’.”
Jenny stepped back into the spotlight this year as co-host of podcast Mairead and Jenny Now with best pal Mairead Ronan.
The pair first met on the Ray D’arcy Show 20 years ago and became on-air favourites.
Mairead quit her presenting gig on Today FM in 2021 and stepped down from Ireland’s Fittest Families this year to focus on motherhood.
Jenny said: “We had grown up with the listeners, we missed that and wanted to reconnect and now we have.”
Jenny, who quit alcohol five years ago, revealed: “I’ve gone from being embarrassed
If you are on air, it’s so intimate, you’re really talking and listening
to talk about it, to feeling odd about not drinking, to almost hiding the fact that I don’t drink. “But now I feel it should be shouted out from the rooftops and celebrated because it’s the biggest gift, not drinking.” There was a moment when she panicked about what life might look like for herself and Ray if she never drank again. She said: “I remember thinking oh when Ray and I are retired and we’re on holidays, I won’t be able to sit on the balcony having like a glass of Prosecco.
“That sounds hilarious to me now, because nothing would stop me sitting on the balcony having a glass of water and it will still be a beautiful moment.”
Commenting on the RTE pay scandal she mused: “People’s trust in that whole organisation falling, that can’t be anything except upsetting.
“At the same time... they’re presenters and programme makers, and they have to be reflective of people outside and I think that’s one thing they probably weren’t doing in RTE.
“They need to connect with the audience and get out there. That’s what Ray wants to do.
“I think there’s positive out of all the negative sh*t. Hopefully it can only get better.”