People send me miraculous medals hoping I will marry and have babies
She’s ‘happy out’ in love but has no plans to tie the knot. Between The Voice and her expanding bootcamp business, Kathryn Thomas wouldn’t have time
KATHRYN THOMAS leans back in the embroidered velour sofa in the lounge of the five-star Dylan hotel. As she balances a white china teacup on the edge of the marble table, she fields several business questions from her office. As she thumbs through her laptop she discusses sponsorship and food orders while at the same time processing applications. Is it any wonder she hasn’t any time for marriage or babies, as she jumps from RTÉ’s top-rated weight loss show to The Voice Of Ireland?
She smiles when she talks about her restaurateur beau Pádraig McLoughlin and even though they have just enjoyed a very special Leap Year date, she says she had no desire to take advan- tage of the traditional women’s prerogative to propose. ‘We are happy out and yes, we had our first 29th of February date night,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think of it [proposing] at all... mind you, I’d say he was bricking it.
‘We went to FXB’s on Pembroke Street for steak and a bottle of red wine and it was the first time we had a night out ourselves in ages. That was just lovely and we have decided now that Monday night is going to be our date night because The Voice will be over on Sunday night and both of his restaurants are a bit more relaxed. I honestly couldn’t be happier and we are together, what... three years?’
Given the fact that she has moved in with her better half, she is less than surprised when the question of engagements and babies regularly comes up. She takes it all with a pinch of salt now especially around the holidays. It is not just the media who are interested in her personal life either. Members of the public regularly send her letters saying they are praying that she will one day get married.
‘I have had the baby questions for 10 years. My God, the baby question is no surprise. Neither is the wedding question. I managed to struggle through Christmas with everyone asking about the ring, the same with Valentines.’
Remarkably, the 37-year-old doesn’t get irritated by the constant public curiosity about her personal plans. ‘I think people just want the best for me, which is really nice. I get letters from people’s grannies or mothers asking me when I am going to settle down. When I first met Pádraig, I got loads of letters and messages on social media saying they were so happy for me that I had found love again. I think people will think it is a national miracle if I do ever manage to get a dress on and go up the aisle.
‘I get loads of letters and wellwishers. I even get miraculous medals in the post in the hope that it will help me get married and have a baby. I swear to God, it is funny but you have to take it as a nice thought.’
Kathryn’s production team take it upon themselves to filter her fan mail, which can contain anything from marriage proposals to calls to leave the business completely. But she is adamant that she genuinely reads whatever lands in front of her.
‘There is no way anyone can shock me anymore as I have seen it all,’ she says. ‘I have had letters where people have said, “Get off our TV screens and never come back again.” Then I’ve had offers of road frontage in Clare and proposing, so it is amusing to get the different reactions.
‘I have never had dirty underwear in the post, or clean ones for that matter, and I am happy
‘I’ve offered to go out in the Lycra and without make-up’
with that. Now the production companies and RTÉ open all the post to try and screen me from the more insulting stuff. But I always tell them to forward me on the negative ones. So I don’t know what they are trying to keep me safe from... anthrax or something, so they open it in case there is something psychotic contained within. But it generally is letters that are warm, weird or just mad.’
It is unlikely that there will be any hate mail generated from Operation Transformation. This past series has been the most successful in the show’s history, despite criticisms from a minority of viewers claiming the show endorses ‘fat shaming’.
‘It was the biggest and the most emotional series yet,’ she says. ‘Viewership grew between 30,000 and 40,000, and at a time when television numbers seem to be dropping, it was really remarkable.
‘There was an accusation of fat shaming. And look, I will hold my hand up; I am in hair and make-up for two hours. So I have the frock and the Spanx and hair and makeup on and they have to come out in a bra and underwear. The reason it is necessary is because, week on week, the only way you will see changes in their bodies over seven or eight weeks is this way.
‘It is not The Biggest Loser, which is filmed over a year or 18 months, where they lose 10 stone. Yes, it is about the weight loss but is also about people and the public going on this journey, which will hopefully end with some long-lasting life changes. It is only when you see them laid bare like that and you look at week one, then four and eventually eight that you can see the change.’
In fact she has huge empathy with the show’s team leaders and their
gruelling journeys as she had her own issues as a teenager. So much so that she offered to appear on the series finale wearing Lycra and no make-up.
‘I have offered to go out in the Lycra without the make-up at the finale and let them have their moment,’ she says. ‘But the producers said no because they felt it would take away from their journey. But I would have done it, absolutely; I have no problem with that. I spent years in a bikini in No Frontiers and I have my body hang-ups as well. I don’t think we shame anybody, we document the process.’
While much of the production team take a month off to recover from the seven-days-a-week grind producing the series, Kathryn can only enjoy a three-day layoff, as The Voice Of Ireland goes live in two weeks’ time.
‘It takes a few days to adjust that I am on a different show and this was the first Monday in months where I had a lie-in and I was at home. But now it is all about getting my head together before the first live show.
‘I had a dress fitting this week and picked the first three outfits. I had to watch all the recorded shows again just to get reacquainted with all the contestants. Because we shot it back in October you forget exactly who is who or even who wins the battles, which is nice. You get to view it as a member of the public. It takes a while to get your head back in the game.’
As always the series producers are hoping to spice up the format by introducing several new features for the seven live shows. They are planning to open the show with a glitzy number that includes both the finalists and the four coaches performing together, designed to show that they are still the biggest floor production here.
‘The big things people always write about the show is that it shouldn’t come back and we have never had a successful artist off the back of it,’ she says. ‘Every year I find myself defending the show but we have all still got a job. The coaches are still doing their things and the numbers are better than ever.
‘So, as long as the ratings are good, why would you axe it? As long as the people are tuning in, I suspect it is a case of if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. If they tune out, then we have a problem. With regard to the talent, I think it is important that we do find an artist who manages to record a hit single. But you have to realise the show is a platform and it is just a leg up in an incredibly tough and difficult industry.
‘To have a platform of The Voice and to have that exposure gives you a real leg up but it is still a fight.’
After five years, Kathryn is as invested today as she was four years ago and still gets nervous before taking to the stage.
‘I still love it and the live show is still one nerve-wracking job. I am a basket case and I get more excited than the poor parents who are watching their precious children on the stage.
‘It is also so awkward and embarrassing when they don’t get through and you are there with the parents who believe 100% that they are the best in the world.
‘I always get struck with nerves for the live shows, particularly for the first 45 seconds. If you see me, I have to hold the microphone with two hands to stop them shaking. It is that awful moment when the doors open, I get out onto the stage and wave to the audience, count to two and get down to my mark before I start talking and I am in flitters. Then you get the warmth of the audience and you get the coaches on and I calm down a bit.’
You would imagine that both Operation Transformation and The Voice is enough of a distraction for RTÉ’s golden girl. But on top of several radio slots on RTÉ Radio 1 this summer, Kathryn is also ramping up her Pure Results Bootcamp, adding 10 new courses, which they will run between two locations – Parknasilla Resort and Sheen Falls in Kerry. And she is bringing in her sister, a marketing guru, to help her expand and hope- fully grow big enough to move outside of Ireland. ‘We did six last year and we are doing 16 this time around, so it is a much bigger prospect. If you are going to grow your business, you have to think big and expand and we got great feedback last year and a huge demand, so I just said this time let’s reach for the stars. So my sister Linda is leaving Google in LA and coming home to work with me part-time in Pure Results. She is going to help me develop the brand. ‘If my strengths are the Francis Brennan on the ground, she is very much the Bill Gates in terms of expansion and promotion into other areas. She has been a brand developer with Google and has buckets of experience. I am concerned about making sure people are cared for and looked after. I think we will work well together.’
The mantra of the camp hasn’t changed. It is a week on the ground with two weeks of aftercare.
‘It is 21 days to change a habit and I ring them at home on the second and third week and get them on the scales and go through their fridge. All the feedback tells me that people love it.
‘You get to invest seven days completely in yourself. It is about weight loss and a detox and sore bodies but it is designed to kick start your life.’
Although so much of her professional work is taken up dispensing lifestyle advice, she does admit that her own life is far from perfect in terms of work-life balance, largely because she is so conscientious about ensuring her bootcamp clients are satisfied.
‘I am a total hypocrite and, yes, I don’t take the time out I am advertising. But I love doing what I do and I set this up and saw how it changed people’s lives and when you are responsible for that you take it to heart.
‘These people took a week off their holidays and paid a significant sum of money to take a chance on me. So I won’t rest until September comes and every single one of those clients is happy.’
‘Every year I find myself defending the show but still the numbers go up’ ‘I get more nervous than the poor parents watching their children’