Lucy Kennedy: The Living with Lucy host talks kids, her dream guests and being the girl next door
Before Katie Price appeared on Living with Lucy this Sunday, Deirdre Reynolds sat down with the presenter
Without naming names, the host says: “I’m very selective about who I live with because… it has to represent me.”
“There are definitely people to whom I said, ‘No, I have no political interest in that.'” I don’t want to sit down at the table with certain politicians because of the past. Or I don’t want to sit down with a celebrity who, God forbid, has had some sort of sexual accusation or something like that.
“I would of course sit down with everyone under a completely different roof and have no problem attacking anyone, but that’s light entertainment. It is also a family brand. So I said to Virgin, ‘No, I won’t do that’.”
As a sixth series began on Virgin Media One last Sunday, the mother-of-three, who first found fame as Podge & Rodge’s latex-clad sidekick on RTÉ, admits that – scheduling difficulties aside – “it’s getting easier”. They bring in big names for the series, in which Lucy crashes into her family’s home for the weekend with a camera crew in tow.
Except for one Irish star who turned her down more than a dozen times.
Lucy moves in with former pin-up Katie Price for Sunday’s episode
“Pat Kenny!” Rat Lucy, who since 2008 has also briefly slept under the roofs of the late Christy Dignam, Hollywood star Barry Keoghan, stage legend Twink and Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae.
“Pat plays hard to get!” He just has to keep going, he has to give in – I think at some point he will. I’ve tried it about 15 times and I clearly don’t understand the hint. But I would love Pat Kenny, I would love Piers Morgan… there are loads of people on my hit list.
“In many ways the more we do the easier it is because thank God people love it and trust me. I’m not a journalist, I’m literally just the girl next door who lives with them. I’m the first person to drink a glass of wine and put on my pajamas, so I think people find them very comfortable.”
The star met at the opening night last week Coronation Street Actor Simon Gregson – who she says is just like his soap alter ego Steve McDonald.
Lucy meets Coronation Street’s Simon Gregson when her hit TV show returns
But three people who definitely won’t be tuning in are Jack, 13, Holly, 11, and Jess, six – Lucy’s children with her businessman husband Richard Governey. And not just because the tipping point has been passed.
“My son is in high school now. I can’t cope!” laughs the 47-year-old. “The only thing he says to me now is, ‘What’s for dinner?’ and “You’re so embarrassing” – and that’s basically based on everything I could say. ‘You’re so embarrassing!'” she imitates. “It’s terrible, isn’t it?
“I don’t think he really minds,” she says when asked what he thinks about having a celebrity mother on the way to school. “They always just sat and watched me Ireland has talentbecause they loved Louis Walsh and Jason Byrne.
“Besides, they have no interest in my career at all. I think they just see me as a normal, nagging, tired mother who constantly complains about the state of her room, the amount of laundry, table manners… they see the real me.”
Lucy was once voted Ireland’s favorite TV presenter and has won at least two young fans at home Friendship fairies Children’s book. She will be signing copies of her fifth book, The friendship fairies save Christmasthis Saturday (October 28) at Eason in the Liffey Valley Shopping Center in Dublin.
“I’m writing number six,” says the hard-working presenter, who can also be heard on Irish Classic Hits Radio alongside Colm Hayes every weekday morning. “I basically write a book every seven months now. I think JK Rowling made a mistake. These little cuticles burn (but) I love it.”
Now the all-rounder is hoping to add a little fairy dust to the TV format she created with Adare Productions.
“I would like to see that Living with Lucy Go to Netflix one day too,” she says. “Something like that could definitely travel.
“I love it as much today as I did 10 years ago, I promise you. I always say that you can fake who you are in 10 minutes, but not in 72 hours. Whoever lives with me is the true reflection of who that person is.”
Living with Lucy airs every Sunday night at 9pm on Virgin Media One