I’m much happier at TV3 than RTE
Lucy Kennedy talks about why she left Montrose, having kids and her plan to host her own show
AT JUST 39 years of age, it’s hard to believe Lucy Kennedy is a TV veteran, yet her career in television spans two decades and, as household names go, they don’t come much bigger. The majority of the viewing public would associate her with the national broadcaster — working as a patsy to irreverent puppets Podge and Rodge.
In her formative years at RTÉ, she also hosted a dating show before graduating to her own reality TV show, Living With Lucy, in which she’d move in with various celebrities.
But, despite having successfully fronted these shows, it appears the mother of two and former air hostess has only just found her feet — in rival station, TV3, as co-presenter of the evening lifestyle chat show, The Seven O’Clock Show.
‘I am much happier in TV3 than RTÉ,’ says Lucy, rather matter- of- factly. ‘I loved RTÉ, but when I worked there with Podge and Rodge it was four years ago. I loved it then; I don’t know what it is like there now. With TV3 I have a little bit more security. With RTÉ you would shoot a 14-week series of Living With Lucy — I was on contract and getting paid — but I may not have shot anything again for six months.
‘What I like about TV3 is I know what I am doing every day. I know I am going in to do a show. I have a routine, I like knowing I won’t have to make my own Christmas cards, that we can book a holiday and I have a proper job.
‘I f eel secure after having been freelance for so long. There was always that panicked feeling about being a freelancer but now I am relaxed because I have that security of a contract and I am in a really good place.’
There is no denying that Lucy is a chatterbox. As we sit in Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Hotel, shooting the breeze, she deftly throws her shortbread biscuit onto my plate, insisting she is on a diet. She has just completed a photocall for skincare brand La Roche-Posay, where she called on fans of the brand to share a selfie with their favourite La Roche-Posay product.
The skincare giant has committed to donating €1 to Temple Street Children’s Hospital for the first 10,000 selfies shared on the website laroche-posay.
ie/yousharewecare.
‘It is very hard going into Temple Street,’ she says. ‘Touch wood, Jack is five and Holly is three, and we haven’t had to use Temple Street yet. It is very heartbreaking going in. We filmed a video for the campaign and it was difficult, as a mother, going into Temple Street. We went into the neonatal unit and saw the tiny babies and the mums trying to express for them and it is such an eye-opener — you just realise how lucky you are.
‘Since becoming a mum five years ago, I am all about children. I will get involved with any children’s charity I can. You are just attracted and drawn to helping those little mites. The money goes straight to Temple Street and I see where the money goes — the staff are so amazing but overworked.’
For a working mother of two, Lucy appears to be in supreme control. It is, she claims, a thin veneer which is only in existence due to routine — but it is a role she wouldn’t change for anything. ‘The best thing I have ever done is become a parent, without a shadow of a doubt,’ she says. ‘There are mornings when you are up at 7am, watching [children’s animation] Ben and Holly, thinking, “If I could have just got to 9am!” But when you kiss their little hot heads before they go to sleep at night and you see they are happy and healthy, it is all so worth it.’
Lucy has been married to her husband, Richie Governey, for nearly seven years. She admits that keeping the intimacy going has been tricky but she claims the all-important date night as the saviour of their relationship.
‘You have to have a date night, it is just so important,’ she says. ‘I think when you become parents you are almost like ships passing in the night. You don’t talk properly. For years you are almost on autopilot and you are in a routine. When I get home by 8.30pm, I am already so tired — and if the kids are still awake I put them down to bed.
‘ By the time you get any time together, you barely get to say hello. So what we try and do is just get some time together. Now that they are older, we are also prepared to get away for a night together three or four times a year. We do have to make an effort to do the date night thing. And when you finally sit down and have that first drink, it’s like: “How are you, what are you up to these days?” It is hilarious.
‘You have to make time and we do make the time. If we go away for the night, we go to bed by 10pm just to get that night of unbroken sleep. The joys of not getting up until after 9am!’
Professionally, Lucy is very much riding the crest of a wave. Her initial TV3 show Late Lunch Live received something of a lukewarm reception. While the chemistry between Lucy and her co-host Martin King worked well, the viewers didn’t flock to the afternoon slot. In a bid to breathe life into the show, producers moved it to the later 7pm slot. It was a move that initially brought Lucy to tears. ‘We literally got two and a half weeks’ notice that the show was going from the Late Lunch slot to the Seven O’Clock Show,’ she says. ‘When I found out, my heart nearly stopped. I had to take a deep breath to make sure my eyes didn’t well up and break down. I got such a shock because I had my children in this great routine. Jack and Holly were happy and everything was working smoothly.
‘I was getting home at 5.30pm and spending the evening with them. Suddenly I had 16 days of notice that everything was changing. I had to hold my breath and bite my lip in TV3 because I was about to tell them where they could go.
‘I originally took the gig because it was an afternoon show. I had been offered other gigs in RTÉ and they didn’t suit me or the kids. The big, big plus of joining TV3 was because it was the afternoon show — I had a total meltdown.’
However, it all turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the new slot proved to be a big hit with viewers and, more importantly, Lucy’s children.
‘After rejigging everything I realise that it is a much better gig,’ she says. ‘It is better for me at home because I can pick them up at school and do the homework and change him and they love that — because I didn’t collect them for a year and a half.
‘I also prefer it as a show. I think it is more me. It is seven o’clock and it is a different show, a different audience and a better fit. It is quicker, faster, we get better guests and it is a bit more grownup. Myself and Martin have the craic, we really do. It turned out to be a really good pairing and it just worked considering we never worked together before.
‘The ratings are great, as well, which really helps. Plus we only do a four-day week, as Anton Savage and Mairéad Farrell do the Friday show. On Friday I can be a mum or do corporate work.’
While you can see Lucy on the box four nights a week, you’re not likely to see her popping up in the social pages at nightly bar and event launches.
This is because being a working mum has made her extremely protective about her time.
‘It is bizarre, I have been told by my agent in the past, “When is the last time you went to an event or a launch?”. I don’t want to, and if I have a night off I want to be at home with the kids. I now realise that, before I had the
‘When you’re a mum, your life is fuller’ ‘The best thing I’ve ever done is have children’
kids, I was never affected or pretentious or drawn to the celebrity lifestyle. But more so now — if I don’t have a legitimate reason to be somewhere, I just don’t go.
‘And it may be considered antisocial or rude, but I don’t care. If I have to go somewhere, I go reluctantly and I don’t enjoy it — because I spend most of the night checking my phone to make sure the kids are OK or to see if I have missed something important.
‘When you become a parent you value your time more and your life is just fuller. You can afford to be fussier when you are a parent. That is just how I feel, and I can say this without being cocky or aloof, because I love what I do. But if it all ended in the morning, I wouldn’t care as long as the kids were OK. I will work in a bar, sweep the roads, whatever it takes.’
Professionally, it appeared Lucy’s happy TV3 existence was thrown into chaos last month with the news that their plan to revive Blind Date — with Lucy as host — was axed. ‘People can slag me off about being too fussy about what I present, but I have never wanted to present a show just to be on TV,’ she says.
‘I have to love what I do. I was devastated when Blind Date was cancelled because of all the hype. [TV3’s former director of content] Jeff Forde bought Blind Date as a format for me, and it was all anyone talked about for the launch last year. Then it got pushed back until after Christmas, than March, and it just started losing momentum.
‘Then Jeff left, and thank God it was Lynda McQuaid, whom I love and respect, that replaced him. But when she started, she called me in and we had a chat and she just told me Blind Date isn’t happening.
‘I was so shocked but, to be fair to her, she made sense. She said I had a nostalgic view of Blind Date because I am 39 and watched it as a child. Now it is Facebook, Grinder, Tinder and people don’t date like that any more. She said I wouldn’t have the same music, I wouldn’t have Graham and I would always be compared to Cilla [Black]. There is a market for a dating show, just a 2015 version and not a circa 1990s one. I said “OK” and she pitched some ideas to me, and some I like. I know things are going to happen for me. I will get my own show but it won’t be Blind Date.’
As we continue to chat, the subject of more kids comes up as I mention a recent article in VIP Magazine where she claimed she was broody.
She laughs and says: ‘I was feeling broody when I did the interview with VIP and I said I would love another baby. That was how I felt that day. The next day I hadn’t slept so well because Holly was up twice and I was thinking a puppy would be better. Yes, we are contemplating a third. Half of me loves newborn babies and I hate the thought of never having one again. I don’t know, the jury is out.’
One thing’s for certain though, we can definitely expect to see more and more of Lucy.