PICTURE OF HEALTH
moment. It’s great; I feel I’m making a difference to people’s lives.”
So in comparison with modelling — something that has been described as a faintly narcissistic profession — does she find her new career more rewarding? Rosanna, however, is far too experienced and savvy an interviewee to go making odious comparisons. “I wouldn’t model that much — it’s more appearances and brand-ambassador work, and I really enjoy it. I’ve been so lucky over the years. This is different. It suits my frame of mind at this stage of my life.
“The modelling I did in my 20s was perfect for then. I was out, meeting people, going lots of places, travelling; it was very fast-paced, exciting. Every day is still different for me, but I’m more settled now. I’m married, I’m at home, I’m not in nightclubs all the time. I don’t know when the last time was . . . you lose the interest. Last night, we were just sitting there on the sofa, with the dogs, perfectly happy.”
What about the ways in which her relationship with her own body has changed, since studying nutrition? Does she feel differently about things such as weight and dress size? “I think my relationship with my body has improved since studying nutrition, and learning more about how the body works has increased my confidence in my own body. I never felt under massive pressure to be super-skinny. I don’t think the industry in Ireland encourages that, anyway; I was always lucky to be encouraged to be fit and healthy.
“Now, I have no idea what I weigh. I haven’t weighed myself in a long time. You can tell, for most of us, by the size of your favourite jeans, whether you feel bloated. I try to tell young girls, it’s so normal for your body and weight to fluctuate, depending on hormones, on the temperature outside, what you’re eating. It’s something you learn over time as well.”
This idea, of communicating with younger women, trying to pass on some of what she has learned along the way, is something Rosanna takes seriously. “You have to be kind to yourself, look after yourself, think about your future fertility, your bone health. Even if a 21-year-old doesn’t have any intention of having a baby any time soon, you need to think about your health in 10 years. Your body lays down your densest bones in the earlier stages of your life. It’s a great idea in your teens and 20s to really look after your bone health — get your calcium, your vitamin D, your magnesium, and even weight train, to look after your bones.”
Speaking of fertility, Rosanna recently described Jennifer Aniston’s now-famous “I am not pregnant, what I am is fed-up” essay for The Huffington Post as “powerful and an important message to put across”. As we discuss it now, she elaborates. “I just think it’s a very, very personal question. I thought Jennifer Aniston’s piece was very appropriate, for her life, and the times we live in. I thought it was an important message to put across. I think we’re getting better at not asking it, but I do still get the question from older relatives. I don’t think there’s any harm or malice — it’s almost like talking about the weather for some people — but nowadays it’s so personal. I wouldn’t dream of asking my friends, and as we all know, not everybody is able to. It can be such a sensitive issue for so many couples.” And, she adds, “People don’t ask my husband!” On the upside, she says: “I think a change in perspective is happening in that way, and the more we talk about it, the more it will change.”
I ask her to characterise the relationship with her husband, Wes Quirke, and the answer surprises me a little, mainly because Rosanna, experienced interviewee as she is, normally errs on the side of caution, choosing to be diplomatic and slightly reserved. But in response to this question, she says frankly, “We’re totally crazy about each other. We’ve been together 10 years this year. We’re best friends; we love spending time together. We’re obsessed with each other. We’re joined at the hip and do everything together”.
And, she hastens to add, “We’re equals as well. There’s no inequality; there’s no dominant partner. Household tasks are evenly divided. He’s very easy-going, and a very positive person, which is brilliant. He refuses to speak negatively about other people, or have any negative influences in the house, which is great. He’s a great person to live with. He’s relaxed about things, which is a good influence on me because probably in the past, in my 20s, I was more highly strung. Sort of anxious, worried. I used to be a big worrier. He’s definitely calmed me down.”
This surprises me. In the years in which I have half-known Rosanna, I always considered her a remarkably calm, confident person. So if she was once a big worrier, what has changed? “I think it was just growing out of things,” she says. “Moving out of that phase of your life where you’re very influenced by other people and what they think of you. That phase where you feel like you’re competing with everyone else, for jobs, or mates, or a partner, before you get into a relationship.”
I’m interested in her assessment of that intense, pressurised phase of women’s lives, the youthful jockeying for position that undoubtedly takes place, but about which many women are reluctant to talk. “I think it’s biological,” she continues. “There’s none of that now. I’ve so many great girlfriends, and we all support each other. I try and be friends with women I am inspired by, who have amazing attitudes or careers or family lives, and we all support each other, and talk to each other when we need advice. I never, ever feel like I’m competing with my female friends, or any other woman. That just disappears. It just goes. Now, I never feel jealousy, or compare myself to anyone else. It’s a lovely phase. You realise you’re an individual, you’ve got your own strengths and weaknesses, and you can just work on yourself.”
In this vein, we go on to talk about social media, and the increasingly indistinct border with ‘real life’. “You think you’re more invincible when you’re younger. Life teaches you that you’re not. A message I’m always trying to pass on to younger women, and men, is that looking at social media is not real life. My Instagram account shows all the best parts of my life. It doesn’t show the shitty parts, the mundane parts, picking up after my dogs, taking out the bins. Life has to be about balance, with good and bad. I don’t want anyone to look at my life and think it’s perfect, that I have it sorted, because no one does. We’re all going to run into little problems here and there, if not big ones. I feel so grateful to have enjoyed a childhood where the internet didn’t exist. I didn’t even join social media until after I finished UCD. At that stage, I was past the age of being totally affected by bullying or what people were saying.”
And yet, in the spirit of openness, she admits to being more, not less, affected by the odd bit of internet nastiness that comes her way these days. “I really do get very little, but even the odd Twitter comment can . . . I find, I’m more sensitive nowadays to it than I used to be. It does give you that knot in your stomach for the day. There’s just no need for social-media bullying. I just find it so sad. It’s just bringing negativity into the [bullies’] own lives, but it’s intended to hurt you, and it does. It does ruin your day. I find, funnily enough, even though I’m settled and less worried about what people think, I find I’m more sensitive to negative comments.”
Ultimately though, it is the intention more than the act that bothers her. “It’s less what the words are saying and more that it horrifies me that someone would do that in the first place. That’s what bothers me — I wouldn’t do that, so why on earth would someone else get off on doing that? The words don’t really get to me, because generally they’re not true, but just the fact that someone would go out of their way to do something like that.” So how does she cope with it? “It takes a day, I sleep on it, wake up the next day and feel fine; it’s done.”
Because fundamentally, Rosanna knows what matters. “Do what you want to do for you. Be proud of yourself. I’m just living a life that I’m happy with and that I’m proud of and I enjoy. There you go,” she laughs.
This is not a ‘new’ Rosanna. She is entirely consistent with the person she has always been — thoughtful, conscientious, hard-working — but all the same, there is something admirably open and honest there, that looks very much like contentment.