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Joanna Donnelly won the hearts of the nation on Dancing With The Stars earlier this year.
She shocked the nation when she announced that she would be stepping back from her role in Met Éireann.
Now the mother of three has penned an emotional piece about her decision to leave her dream job after three decades.
“Leaving the role I loved so much was a terrible trauma… Choosing to stop was devastating, but losing friendships and valuable relationships to stress would have been worse,” she wrote in the Irish Independent.
“It started out that I had to ask for permission if I was to appear in the media in an area unrelated to my job. My initial interpretation was that if there was no conflict of interest with my work as a weather forecaster, then it shouldn’t matter,” she went on to say.
She explained that she needed permission to do “media outside of work” including appearing on radio stations to talk about weather and even going to talk about science in schools.
She added: “I experienced a steady deterioration in working conditions, eroding simple things the team and I took for granted, like a fixed rotating roster that was predictable, fair and balanced.
“In recent years, I noticed I was getting hit by a horrible, chronic fatigue. I am a usually fit and healthy person. I run, I swim, I cycle everywhere and I do a daily yoga practice. I don’t smoke and I only drink to excess at book club. I blamed Covid. I blamed post-Covid. I blamed post-viral infections. I blamed menopause. In fact, I mostly blamed menopause.”
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She recounted how she began to take HRT and an array of supplements.
“Leaving the role I loved so much was a terrible trauma,” she confessed.
“But I also look back on all the weeks I was unwell, all the doctor visits, all the blood tests to try to unearth what was wrong with me, and I know I made the right decision. No one ever suspected it could have been that I was stressed. Why would I have been stressed by a job that I loved, that inspired me and, even better, allowed me to inspire others?
“Choosing to stop was devastating, but losing friendships and valuable relationships to stress would have been worse.”
She went on to say that while it is scary to think about re-entering the job market in her 50s that she knows she has made the correct decision.
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In a statement to the Sunday Independent, Met Éireann clarified: “Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, is a line division of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
“As an employer, the department has a duty to its employees not to disclose any information of a personal nature and accordingly, the department does not comment on any matters related to individual members of staff.
“As a Division of a Civil Service Department, all employees of Met Éireann are civil servants.”
