Donal Skehan may be one of the most friendly and bubbly stars around, but he hasn’t been exempt from harsh criticism online.
While the nasty messages came earlier in his career and have, for the most part, eased off now, the Howth native reveals how he overcomes the hateful comments.
Donal puts his positive attitude towards these trolls down to self confidence, and knowing his own worth.
Speaking exclusively to VIP Magazine, he said, “For me, when I first started I used to get nasty messages.
“People didn’t really know who I was or what I did, and because I didn’t come from a traditional background of working in a restaurant, they didn’t know what to make of me.
“I’ve been doing it for ten years now and at this point, I have the confidence to deal with people who say bad things.
“At some point, you have to be confident in what you do, know you do a good job at it, and anyone who has something bad to say, it really does reflect on them more than it does on you.
“Who has the time to be writing nasty things on the internet? There are bigger things in the world to be worrying about. There’s so much of that out there at the moment. Thankfully I don’t get it anymore.”
And how exactly does he overcome the nasty messages?
“I think it has come down to the fact that I know what I do, and go out of my way to do it well. I think there will always be that aspect of it.
“When you see 100 tweets which are amazingly positive, you will always be hung up on that one that said you’re an absolute tosser. The biggest thing that I’ve learned over the last ten years is that you just have to push them aside.
“Over the time that I’ve been doing it, I have very much grown a thick skin. The positives outweigh the negatives eventually. It’s all good.”
Well we’re delighted he was the bigger person!
Meanwhile, Donal has a new show, Follow Donal, which kicks off on RTE One next Tuesday at 8.30pm.
