Claire Byrne is very quickly becoming one of the top broadcasters in this country, however the RTE star has admitted that juggling her demanding career and personal life, isn’t easy.
Chatting to the Sunday Independent, Claire said, “This has been the toughest professional and personal year of my life.”
Claire returned to work in RTE just 10 weeks after giving birth to her daughter Jane at the end of last year, and the reality of being a working mum with two childen under the age of three really hit home for her.
“I’m doing both, and I’m not going to say that it’s an easy thing to do, because it’s not. I would quite honestly say to you when I came back to work in January of this year after having Jane, it was the toughest year of my life, without doubt,” she said.
She continued, “Coming back to work 10 weeks after the first baby is one thing, but coming back to work 10 weeks after the second baby and then starting a new show? It was absolutely crazy!”
The broadcaster admits that it all got a bit too much for her at times, but she done her best to see it through.
“I was walking out the door some mornings and I was leaving mayhem behind and I just thought, ‘this is all getting away from me, everything is happening too quickly.’ It’s not easy, but going back [in the upcoming season] I feel like I have found a bit more of a rhythm and a bit more used to having two children as opposed to one,” she said.
Claire went on to say, “Everything is great in the broad scheme of things, but everything is not great. Some days children bump their heads or won’t eat and you still have to go to work. I can’t not turn up for a show that I am presenting. So it’s not easy. It’s do-able, just about, but it’s tough.”
The RTE star admits that the most difficult part for her is the fact she doesn’t always get to see her children as much as she would like to, but she makes up for it when she has time off: fulfilling both her roles in her career and personal life as much as she possibly can.
“There are some nights when it gets to 10 O’Clock and I’m about to go on air in half an hour and I’m like, ‘I haven’t seen my children since 10am’, and that’s a little tough. You’re kind of pushing and pulling all of the time, but you know, I think when you make the decision to go back to work, you’ve got to be at peace with that. That’s the way I am,” she said.
