Lottie Ryan has shared her heartbreak following the loss of her dad ten years ago.
Gerry passed away suddenly at the age of 53, leaving behind five children; Lottie, Bonnie, Babette, Elliot and Rex.
Speaking to Brian Dowling on his podcast Death Becomes Him, Lottie opened up about the moment she learned of her father’s passing.
“My whole life changed in an instant,” she said.
“I obviously wasn’t expecting the news when I got it, so I just felt like my whole world suddenly shattered. It was just horrific.”
She continued, “Thankfully I was with some of my family when I got the news, but the whole day is a big blur in my head, you know, in terms of what happened and the emotion around it.
“It was just awful. The worst moment you can think of.”
Lottie revealed that being in the public eye made their grief and that traumatic time even harder to deal with.
“I felt people were expecting me to always look upset or be in grief,” she said.
“I could be having a day where I woke up and maybe it wasn’t the first thing on my mind.
“I’d walk into a shop and there would be awful things written on a newspaper about him, and it would throw me back again. I found that very difficult for a long time.”
In honour of Gerry’s 10th anniversary RTE aired a special documentary surrounding his life and legacy.
The response online was overwhelming, as Twitter was inundated with people sharing their opinions on the show and their memories of the late presenter.