Anna Daly is opening about the negative comments she received while working on Ireland AM.
The presenter hosted the weekend edition of the breakfast show for 12 years, before saying goodbye in 2021. While Anna stressed how she enjoyed her time on Ireland AM, the Dubliner admitted that after first starting the show she struggled with negative comments from viewers.
“In the very early stages of joining Ireland AM, the texts used to come in on a screen in front of us and me, like an eejit rookie, used to read them.”
“I genuinely wanted to know if people liked me and if I was doing an OK job. There were gorgeous things said but, of course, they washed over me,” the presenter told the Sunday Independent.
The Hospital Live host recalled a particular incident when she was pregnant which left her upset.
Saying: “I do remember being heavily pregnant, feeling great, running from studio to garden to kitchen, so delighted that I had a healthy pregnancy and everything was going well and thinking I was fabulously blooming and then I read the texts and they stopped me in my tracks.’
Remembering a specific text, reading: “Would someone send that poor girl home, she looks like she is about to burst.”
These messages had a big impact on Anna, as she explained: “It was at a time when I was looking for approval in the early days and hoping I was doing everything right – I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, everyone is looking at me thinking I should go home.'”
“I started to wonder are people thinking I am too big and I shouldn’t be running around doing this job?”
However, over the years Anna has learned how to process negativity from being in the public eye. Sharing how a particular quote from another Daly lady, British presenter Tess Daly, helped her through.
“I always remember Tess Daly did an interview and she said, ‘I always like to think of the people who don’t like my dress. I like to think of them in their dressing gown covered in Monster Munch passing comments on women who are out there trying to do their best.'”
“A bad tweet says more about the person than it does about you. I know that now,” she concluded
