We know we shouldn’t admit this, but we have to. We know we shouldn’t fantasize about other people’s lives, but we are. If we could be anyone else for a day? Darren Kennedy! Now, stick with us here while we explain why…
We bumped into Darren in LA a little while ago, strolling down Abbot Kinney Boulevard and, even on a street as vibey as that, he stood out. Big happy head on him, a smile as bright as the cloudless sky above and a tiny cute pup, who he was dogsitting, in his arms. And, the outfit, folks, the outfit.
Never too much, always just enough. When we went about setting up this shoot, knowing that he was coming home to Dublin for the summer to co-host the Six O’Clock Show with Katja and Brian, we said to stylist Fiona Fagan, if you can tell us who the most fashionable man in Ireland is, the job is yours! Fiona got the gig!
His innate sartorial sense aside, there’s serious depth to this Dubliner. He loves his mum, says she is the reason he possesses the gift of such optimism. He’s also a hustler, having worked since the age of 13, when he started washing cars near his home in Santry, north Dublin. He believes that if you want something in life you should work for it and so he has. He has a house in Dublin, he has lived and worked in London and he now lives and works in LA. When stateside he presents on Access Hollywood, hosts his own podcast On The Number and his TV segment Celebrity Closets where he gets inside the closets of designers, supermodels and musicians, charming the likes of Nicole Scherzinger, Elton John and Jane Seymour. And then he flies home – always Business Class, “Airmiles” he laughs – to his real VIPs, his family; his nieces; his nephews.
He has complete agency over his life. He is the master of his own destiny and he can rock a sock-less brogue better than any other man we know! We talk celebrity homes, the power of therapy and how it’s in his destiny to interview Oprah – one day…
“Too busy making my own sunshine to worry about the clouds”. That, Darren Kennedy, is a quote that sits on your Instagram grid. We think it might be a motto for your life? Because it appears, to outside eyes anyway, that you are a pretty sunshine guy.
Well, thank you! It is a quote that really resonates with me. I mean everyone’s life has clouds. Sometimes the clouds get deep and dark and heavy, sometimes they are invisible, sometimes there are no clouds. I really think how you choose to deal with and react in those moments of cloudiness is up to us all. I think it is my natural disposition to be optimistic, as well. I have always been slightly hard-wired this way. You met my mam and that is a trait I get from her. I think I am easily pleased. Although a lot of what I do can look and appear very glam, people assume I need that, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I like nice things but I don’t need them to be happy.
What do you need to be happy?
I need that sense of connection to my family and friends. I like somewhere nice and safe to live. And I enjoy travelling, but not in a boujie sense. I also work to cultivate happiness in my life and, a sense of optimism; I think that is something people can do. For me, it’s the daily rituals like my morning coffee, and going to the gym, but it is a process and I would hate it to be oversimplified because obviously I am a fully rounded person and by virtue of the fact of being human, we all have little traumas in our past. I am also a big advocate of therapy and I think it’s something that should be widely available through the HSE for everyone. I think therapy is an incredible workout for your mind.
You were back and forth a lot this summer, between here and LA, co-hosting the Six O’Clock Show with Katja and Brian. You do a lot of commuting which looks like jetsetting! And, you’re always in Business Class! How?!
[Laughing] Well, you know, airmiles are a great thing if you travel a lot! Also for transparency I should say that I do some work with AerLingus. Actually, I started working with AerLingus when I was 19, I did two summers at check-in, was a ground stewart in Dublin Airport. “Good morning, where are you travelling today? Can I see your passports, please?” It was the first summer of college and I loved it! And actually, some of my friends still work there today so when I go through the airport I have to give extra time so I can do the rounds!
Do you need to keep bouncing around from country to country to keep it varied?
I travel between the States, Ireland and Europe and I work wherever work is. I continue to be the driving force in where I am, what I choose to do and where I choose to go. And that’s just me. So yes, I thrive with variety and need that stimulation.
We describe Jennifer Zamparelli as a hustler and we regard you in the same vein – as a hustler too. You have been hustling from day dot, have you not?
That’s really interesting you draw that comparison because Jennifer is a really good friend of mine and one of our first TV shows together, The Unemployables, was based on that premise. We share that mutual parallel in our lives, in that we’ve always just hustled and we love the hustle, that was the basis of our show, sharing that with people who felt stuck. I got my first job when I was 13 washing cars in a petrol station on the old Airport Road. And I have worked pretty much continuously since. It was the paycheque that sold it to me, I didn’t have to ask anyone for money for the cinema or for money to buy fish for my fish tank, I was like, ‘I am good!’
It’s expensive to live in LA. Is it hard to support yourself there?
I was only talking to someone about this last night and we were doing a comparison with eating out in Dublin and eating out in LA. The actual reality is they are not too dissimilar but the difference is in LA you have to add tax and tips and that’s the killer. And also alcohol in the US is much more expensive. I always try to live within my limits and that goes back to the grassroots of where I’m from and how I was brought up. Don’t live beyond your means and if you want something work for it.
Life in LA is good and work is flying. Celebrity Closets which we can catch on ITV with Lorraine (9am-10am) is granting you access to Hollywood royalty. It’s a show so up your street, you must have pitched it?
I did pitch it and Lorraine in ITV liked the sound of it and we did a pilot and they loved it and the audience can’t get enough of it. I love it, it ticks so many boxes for me! There’s one going out soon in actress Jane Seymour’s Malibu home and it’s kind of phenomenal. The home shows so much about the person. It does, it’s so interesting. Like Jane Seymour had it written into her early contract that she would keep all her wardrobe so she has the original full-length leather coat that she wore as Dr. Quinn in Medicine Woman. She also has what she wore when she received her OBE.
You also had a snoop in Elton John’s wardrobe. That must have been quite something?!
Well, there was a caveat: we weren’t in his physical wardrobe, we were shown a collection of clothes. But his wardrobe is as eclectic and as crazy as his style.
Who else?
Popstar Nicole Scherzinger. Hers was very organised, very large and she was a bit of a collector as well and really valued certain pieces. She was like, ‘this is what I wore in the first ever video when we went to No.1, this is the outfit I wore when I met my idol Whitney Houston!’ She has kept things with real sentimental value because she is someone who has grafted and come from very humble beginnings. We were in her house, a beautiful house, off Sunset, in west Hollywood and she said, “I didn’t grow up in a house like this and so I am very grateful”. It was also the first time she had ever let anyone into her home.
And how did you manage to swing that, hustler?!
Ah, you know! The value of relationships is not to be underestimated.
And the value of being an Irishman in LA is helpful too!
It certainly isn’t a hindrance! We never asked what Jane Seymour’s house in Malibu is like? Absolutely incredible. Her next door neighbour is Cher!
Stop!
That will give you an idea of what we’re talking about! I underestimated how incredibly successful Jane has been, and continues to be. And having spent time with her I understand why, yes talent is a big part of it but she is a grafter and is lovely to be around.
Who’s home and wardrobe would you love to get into?
Ricky Martin’s! Just because I want to get into his bedroom! I am manifesting Ricky’s home in LA! I’d also love to get into Tom Ford’s. But my dream would be Oprah.
Can you make it happen?!
Why not?! I went on a hike in Montecito a couple of months back and I was sure I was going to bump into her! I didn’t, but I swear it’s in my destiny! I can feel it! This is going back a couple of years, but I was visiting LA and a publisher I know was having a benefit in his mum’s backyard in Beverley Hills, and he said if you want to come, do. But I couldn’t make it…I didn’t try that hard to make it! Well, oh my God, biggest mistake ever! Because performing at the benefit was Stevie Wonder. Tommy Hilfiger was there too, sitting beside Oprah! I was livid with myself! Raging!
Let’s talk about your podcast, On The Number. For people who haven’t listened, it’s about how we measure life innumbers, from bank balances to calories to steps. So, we’ll throw some of your questions back on you now: do you count calories, because you are pretty fit?
I don’t. I worked on the first three seasons of Operation Transformation and on that series, I learnt a lot about food, stuff that should be taught in school. I have a natural appetite for certain foods, like I love spicy food and I always think Thai food, is in general, healthy. I know my own body and what works for me and what doesn’t. I love chocolate, I love ice cream, I love cake, I often don’t like saying that because I think people think I’m being an asshole. But I also know how far I can push it. So no, I don’t count calories.
Do you count steps?
No! I work out four or five days a week, 30-40 minutes. The most important thing on that front for me, is consistency.
And you are good at being consistent?
I think consistency is one of my top qualities, actually. It’s not always easy but I really try not to give up. The day you give up is the day you miss out.
Do you know what’s in your bank balance now?
Yes, I do because I had to check it this morning because I had a payment that was due to come out and I had a gift to buy someone so I was checking if was there was enough money.
Do you spend a lot?
I would say I don’t, but my accountant would beg to differ!
What’s the most expensive thing you have ever bought?
My home in Portobello, Dublin.
How many siblings do you have?
I have a brother and a sister and I am in the middle.
We met your lovely mum on this shoot, tell us about her and about your relationship now and, when you were growing up?
My mum is, honestly, the most amazing person. I know it sounds so clichéd and cheesy, but I feel so lucky that I have been raised by her and born to her. Because she’s so much fun, and in the early years we didn’t have a lot but we had everything. I was probably an annoying child in a way, because I would sometimes prefer to sit in with her and her friends than go out and play football. I was like sticking glue to her; a total mammy’s boy! I remember once she had to go off with my dad to do something and I was like, ‘I’ll come with you’ and it was like, ‘No, no, stay with your nanny’, who I also loved. Anyway, it was agreed they’d be gone an hour so I sat there for the hour and counted and when she wasn’t back on the hour I lost my shit! That’s how close I was to her. Mam’s brilliant, she’s a ray of sunshine. Everything we mentioned earlier in this interview about glass half-full, it all comes from her.
Family is so important to you. The joy on your nieces and nephews faces, and on yours each time you see them when you come home, is heartwarming. Would you like kids of your own?
Aw…I love them, I know. But I don’t know if I’d want kids of my own….they do bring me so much joy, like I had a Princess Day with the girls at the weekend and they rinsed me, as they should! But I don’t feel like there’s anything missing in my life. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be open to it being added. Sometimes I do get a bit broody but I get broody for puppies too! I am trusting the universe will do its thing there, whatever way it works out.
You have spoken before about your struggles with coming out and how for a period in your life you would have loved to have woken up straight, as it was the path of least resistance. Why was it so hard for you then and why is it still, in this day and age?
I guess it was me coming to terms with my own sexuality y’know and the path of least resistance would have been not having to deal with that. However, in hindsight, I would never change a thing. I love who I am, and I love being part of the community I’m part of. Gay people bring so much colour and light and creativity to the world.
Why do I think it is still difficult?
Because it is. There unfortunately is still a lot of homophobia and bigotry. We may have passed the Marriage Equality Bill in 2016 so you would presume all the homophobia is gone, but it’s not. What worries me is this rise in hatred we’re seeing across the mworld. I’m not saying Ireland is a hotbed of xenophobia but there are undercurrents here. We live in challenging times in terms of civil liberties which are being tested. There is a bravery to the thuggery and the Dublin Riots were a sign of it.
We don’t want to end on a downer but it is depressing really, to think and witness, our country taking a step backwards.
I do think this country has come on in leaps and bounds but we have to continue to always fight for what is right. Any sort of brutality or hatred towards anybody needs to be stamped out which is why I feel it’s more important than ever to stand up for what you believe in. And that’s not to say we all have to be warriors or trailblazers, but if you see something, or you hear something, that doesn’t sit right with you, have the courage to speak up. Because it’s micro aggressions and micro stances that make the difference.
