Former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh has denied being in a relationship with her tv producer pal.
Maria, the first openly gay Rose, sparked romance rumours with producer Shauna Keogh as they arrived to the Gossies on Sunday night, but the pair have stressed that they are just friends.
“I know people have been asking Shauna if she was my girlfriend, but I’m not in a relationship. We are just two people working on ideas together,” she said, referring to their filming of a segment for RTE’s Reality Bites series.
Shauna also refuted the claims that the pair are dating, but said she understands why people would speculate as they are both openly gay.
“We’ve had so many questions asking if Maria and I are together,” she told the Irish Sun. “We know people are interested and these questions aren’t going to go away. We knew this was going to come up and people are going to come to the wrong decision, but myself and Maria are just friends and work colleagues.
“Myself and Maria are definitely going to be hanging out at more events together. We’re both gay and if the two of us turning up on a red carpet together makes it easier for same sex couples, that’s great.”
She added: ““I think Maria is an amazing, brilliant role model for young people in the LGBT community and she has allowed more young people to come out about their sexuality.”
