It’s grey and it’s lashing – the type of day that dampens not just hair, but moods. Yet when Laura Fox arrives to our photoshoot in House Dublin, hot off the RTÉ 2FM airwaves, she couldn’t present a more striking contrast. Clearly, she never received the moody memo, for here she stands—or rather bounces—before us, beaming and bright.
This Galway gal has this ebullient energy that makes you feel almost lacking, like you’ve missed the memo too. Her fizz is so contagious, it makes you want in! It’s this very effervescence that has propelled her to where she is today: host of her own daily radio show, entering her third season of Fittest Families (soon to begin shooting), and for the second consecutive year, hosting our Platinum VIP Style Awards.“Life is pretty sweet right now”, she tells us, her engagement ring sparkling.
Intrigued by her energy we investigate the origins of such hope and gratitude and fun and we find a girl thankful for her lot, grateful for her shot and aware of her luck ever since the passing of her uncle and a good friend, three and six years ago respectively.
“I want to use my time wisely in this life. Life is too short. I want to have no regrets”, she tell us here.
We talk about the love of her life, Brian, her upcoming wedding, how she secured her dream jobs, and the winding path that led her here…
We were listening to you on your 2FM show as we came into this shoot today, and you just sound so happy, so at home. It is the dream job, Laura, isn’t it?
It is the dream job for me. I grew up listening to radio and all I ever wanted was to do radio. Also, I cannot begin to explain the buzz I get off live radio because you have no idea what is going to happen. Obviously, we plan the show to within an inch of its life, but we have live callers and you have no control over what way that is going to go, ever! And that’s my favourite bit, talking to random people and the craic you get out of them.
The rush doing live radio must be exciting?
It is! And it’s the spontaneity too. Because in theory the show is the same everyday but it’s absolutely not because a caller can change the landscape of how the day goes or a conversation could shift everything – I just love that. I love the competition winners too. We gave away a holiday there recently and the winner called us to tell us exactly what she was doing and it was just so special to be part of that excitement.
And, you get to play cool tunes too. Best job ever!
I adore music. I’m just back from Nashville and I was in my element because I got to listen to live music there from 10am which is the time it all kicks off at in Nashville. But the talent we have in this country is astronomical so getting to play Irish music live on air, as well as all the other music, means so much.
Do your friends think you have the coolest job?
I’ve had the same friends since school and as much as they think it’s a cool job they’re incredibly happy that they don’t have to do it!
Why?
They adore it but they’re on their nerves all the time with my day-to-day! They look at the variables of everything that could possibly go wrong and the insecurity of it and how I could be doing six different jobs in a day, and they can’t cope!
The variables in your day that’s interesting, do you have a short attention span, do you need a variety of elements in your day to keep you interested?
I do and I don’t. I have learned that I do need structure. Even when I wasn’t working Monday to Friday I implemented routine into my life because otherwise I kind of went off the rails a little bit. I felt sluggish and my mind was just all over the place. But as much as I love structure, after the show any social media work I have to do I get done and that’s where it can get chaotic. It’s a busy day, every day and I am exhausted by the end, but I’m happy! [Laughing] And anyway everyone is exhausted…!
And not everyone is happy! Another dream job is surely presenting the tv show, Fittest Family. What a great show to be involved with. You’re energetic already but it must give you even more energy just watching the fantastic families partake?
I still don’t think people fully grasp what the families put themselves through when they go onto that show. It’s so physically gruelling, the challenges are so hard, and the days are long, you’re talking 12 hours days. The best thing about the show is that not one person from the two years that I’ve been doing the show complains about having to do anything. They always come out with big smiles on their faces and it’s very emotional for the parents working together and alongside their kids. Chances are they’ll never get to do anything like that again. It’s a special show.
Not such a dream job is hosting – as you did also last year – the Platinum VIP Style Awards! It’s often been said by previous hosts that it’s a hard room to play as it’s all industry peers! How do you feel about it?
Oh, I love it! I just think they’re all people at the end of the day. But I think the hardest part is that you’re putting the loudest people in the country together in one place and you’re trying to get them to be quiet and to listen! I think once you accept they’re not going to be quiet and that you must be a bit louder, it’s actually fine! [Laughing]
And the fashion Laura – always off the scale!
I absolutely live to see what people are going to rock up in. Some go clean cut and beautiful with their gowns and then you have those that go absolutely mental and they really look at it like it’s the Met Gala. There is no other night that you could dress like that. You can have so much fun with it!
You are the perfect host, built to present, what is it you love so much about your job?
It’s really exciting and I get to meet loads of different people. From the Style Awards to the Ploughing, there’s such variety. Presenting at the Ploughing was one of the best days I’ve ever had. I did the radio show from there, then we did Hang Tough from Fittest Families, it was just so incredibly fun. But then I do corporate gigs as well which are totally different again. I think it’s the variety, that’s what I love.
Growing up what did you want to do?
Growing up I didn’t even know this was an option. But I kept telling everybody I was going to be a radio presenter or a tv presenter though I had no idea how to get there. I just knew it would work out though and I think that scared my mother so much. She was so terrified it was a pipe dream and to be honest it was a pipe dream that worked out because I just stayed at it. I think there was a good ten years when my mother didn’t take a breath!
What did you do when you left school?
Firstly, I went and did a secretarial PLC course. After that I could have done business in one of the colleges, but I just knew it wasn’t for me, I was like, I’m just not built for that, I don’t have the attention span. I was also big on not wanting to waste money either and I didn’t want my mum wasting money on a course I didn’t want to do.
So, did you start working?
Yeah, I got a job and was working in a bar and I was also working as a waitress in another bar so I was doing two jobs. Then an opportunity came up for me to move to London and work in a bar over there and I took it because I thought it would be a great way for me to leave Ireland with a job. That was the hardest work I’ve ever done in my whole entire life. You lived and worked in the bar, there were four bars and you kinda got ferried around when your bar closed, you got sent to another bar to do a shift there. It was madness but great. I made so many friends and I got to live in London.
What happened then?
After I left London my plan was to move to Canada and while I was waiting for that I entered into the Miss Galway competition and I won that and I thought, ‘Oh hang on a second this might work’, because my whole goal was to figure out how I could get contacts in the media. Then I entered Miss Sunday World, enrolled in a journalism course and moved up to Dublin and started doing social media work. Now we’re talking ten years ago before social media is what it is now. On a photoshoot for a social media brand, I got talking to the photographer who said he knew someone in RTÉ Pulse, did a demo for them, got a two hour show there and literally did not stop tipping away at getting over to 2FM since then.
You worked your way to the top.
Yep. I’m really happy everything happened the way it happened, because I have so much life experience and so much working experience and I made so many random friends on the way. Also, I know who you can trust and who you can’t and I think that’s a very valuable asset in this job.
What does your mum think now?
She’s absolutely delighted! She can finally take a breath! And she reiterates this all the time that it’s not that she didn’t think I could do it, it’s just that the odds were/are really stacked against you, like how do you go about it, how does this stuff happen? I think it’s a little easier now because there’s platforms where you can upload your work to, so you can publicly be putting yourself out there on TikTok and YouTube and even Instagram stories and you can reach out to people on Linkedin, none of that really existed when I started out, it was who you knew and word of mouth. So, it was just pot luck.
Pot luck and hard work! Tell us about your family, you’re the eldest of four…
Eldest of four, three younger siblings but there is a big age gap, 10, 11 year age gap between me and them.
And your mam?
My mam is third out of 11! Her youngest brother, my youngest uncle, is only four and a half years older than me! I don’t have the eldest child syndrome, I nearly have the youngest child syndrome!
Because you have such a huge sort of blended family!
Massive. We are all really close, if there’s a communion, a confirmation, a 21st birthday, a 40th, a 50th, everyone is there, no one misses it, that was a huge adjustment for Brian (fiancé) initially. As a family we do everything together and it’s never just immediate family, it’s all the family. The first day he met my mam it was also my two aunts, my seven uncles, my 20 something cousins, everyone on top of him all at once! I was just like, get used to it!
You want me, you take them!
Yeah, we are a package, we are a unit!
It means that the wedding which is taking place next year is going to be huge!
And this is the funny thing. We were kinda banging around numbers and I was like, 120 would be the ideal number and Brian was like, ‘Yeah but that’s just your side’ [laughing]! So, we’ve just got the point now that we’ve decided we’re getting married abroad and we’re inviting everyone, if you can come, you can come if you can’t, you can’t and no stress. I know it’s gonna be big but because I was raised with big, it’s not going to be too overwhelming.
Do you get stressed about anything Laura?
I used to be the biggest stress head going and I used to lose my marbles about the smallest thing. But then six years ago I lost my friend Al and my uncle John very suddenly passed away three years ago now from a heart problem none of us knew he had. Since all that happened, I’ve been like, ‘life is way too short’. I look at my life all the time and go, ‘You are doing exactly what you always wanted to do, and everything is pretty sweet for you right now’, so I really live in the moment, and I enjoy it. And I think that can annoy people sometimes because people might think I’m full of shit but I’m not, I just don’t want to ever look back and have regrets, and I don’t want to think why did I waste all that time if I don’t have it. I want to use my time wisely in this life.
So, there will be no stressed bride on this watch anyway!
There won’t. Brian and I are together ten years this year. And everyone is like, ‘Oh he finally proposed’ and I’m like, ‘No, I finally let him!’ [Laughing] I said to Brian years ago I really want to marry you but I only want to get engaged when we’re actually able to organise and pay for this wedding. When you’re working a random shift here and there and you’re trying to make ends meets and everything is so bloody expensive, the last thing you want on your mind is thinking about planning a wedding.
So when did you let him finally propose?!
After I got my weekend radio show I knew he was gearing up to propose and I was like, ‘Just hold off, chill’, because I really wanted to take in that moment. I had worked so hard to get there, so I was like will you just hold off for a minute so he was like ‘no problem’. Then I got Fittest Family, off the back of that I got Dancing With The Stars and then after that I got my five day radio show and it all just came in one swoop so last year when we went on holidays and he proposed, he was like, ‘There’s nothing possibly left for you to do and I can’t wait any longer!’ [laughing]
Fair play to him!
I laugh about asking him not to propose because the wedding is all we talked about! It’s why everything happened so quickly with organising it. We had very clear plans about what we wanted, we even knew we wanted DJ Tracy Clifford to officiate our wedding. The reason it’s August 2026 is because we have so many teacher friends and I’ve so many cousins the only time that we could do it was during school holidays, but there was no August availability for this year which is why it’s next year and I get so impatient sometimes, I’m like, ‘Why did we push it out?!’ But equally it’s been great because it means we can pay off things bit by bit. And because there’s been so much forward planning it means there’s been no stress or anything. But talk to me in a year!
Tell us a bit about Brian!
Oh, I don’t know where to start! I hope he doesn’t read this but he’s the greatest person I have met in my whole entire life. I adore him so much. Obviously, he’s watched me try make it in this industry and he’s always been my biggest cheerleader. Anytime I wanted to give up he was at my back pushing me along. He never stopped believing in me. And he has sacrificed a lot for me, it’s not like we were going out for loads of dinners and on loads of holidays because I had the guilt that any excess bills were falling on him and I didn’t want that. But he didn’t care. He just refused to let me give up. I truly would not have gotten here without him. But he’s also a backseat person, he’s so happy for me to do everything and he’s happy to be on the sidelines. And he works incredibly hard. And he just gets on with it.
He has to travel a good bit for work and is away again at the moment. How does that work out?
I miss him loads but I just switch into a different gear. There’s no point in me sitting around moping so I just plan and look at all the stuff I need to get done when he’s not there. I watch all the tv shows I want to watch. Or I see my friends. Or sometimes I just sit on my ass by myself and talk to no one!
What is the plan for this week now that he is away?
I’m going to do a big shop, do meal prep, I’ve loads of gym sessions planned, gonna bring the dog out for walks, get my nails done and I’m going to try on wedding dresses again because I can’t get enough of it! I’m very happy out!
