We all know Doireann Garrihy for her warm presence and bubbly personality, however after a fake WhatsApp voice note about her went viral in 2018, the presenter felt nothing but stress and heartbreak.
The voice note in question had alleged that Doireann stole another woman’s boyfriend, with the claims subsequently being debunked as completely false.
Reliving the difficult time in her life, the 2FM host is now detailing just how difficult the scandal proved in a new interview.
“It was horrific,” she told the Irish Independent.
“When it’s not true, you’re getting calls from newspapers and from people saying things like ‘Doireann, I’ve followed you since forever and I really didn’t think you were this kind of girl.’
“I just froze,” she added. “Which I think was the right thing to do at the time. I just did nothing.”
It wasn’t long, however, until the incident took its toll on the Garrihy family, with her sister Ailbhe becoming increasingly upset despite parents Eugene and Clare’s optimism that it would “blow over”.
After Ailbhe began to investigate the situation for herself on Twitter, she was overcome with emotion.
“The tears started rolling from Ailbhe’s eyes. I was like [to her parents], ‘If Ailbhe’s crying, can you see how bad it is.’
“It was a real character assassination,” she admitted.
Despite the incident, Dorieann revealed that it taught her about how despite having a large social media following, sometimes some people aren’t actually fans but just waiting for you to mess up.
All in all, Doireann quickly bounced back after clearing the air on social media, with her career going from strength to strength ever since.
