Lottie Ryan on turning 40 and sharing her life online

[Dominique Farrell]

Turning 40 has not diminished Lottie Ryan's appetite and enthusiasm for new projects in radio, TV or podcasting, and as she tells Claire O’Mahony, she even has a hankering to get back on the dance stage.

 

Turning 40 in October didn’t arrive with the sense of dread Lottie Ryan had prepared herself for. She expected unease or at least a moment of panic, but instead she says she felt "steady". As she puts it herself, "I feel I am in my 'give no f*ck’ era. I am really here for it."

She says this with a laugh, but you can tell she means it.

"It is good to be in a place where you feel you really know yourself," she says. "I feel your 20s and 30s are spent trying to figure out who you are, what you want to do, where you want to go. Not that I do not still have some of those questions, but I definitely feel a lot more in control of who I am and the people I want in my life. I am excited for my 40s; it feels like a really settling place."

 

Broadcaster, podcaster, trained dancer, mother and eldest daughter of the late Gerry Ryan, Lottie has spent more than a decade inside RTÉ, most visibly on 2FM, where she has shifted from entertainment reporter to presenter, becoming a confident voice on air.

 

She has stepped between radio, TV and digital projects, and her win on Dancing with the Stars in 2020 introduced her to an audience that might never have encountered her on the radio. The fact that her father was such an important figure in Irish media follows her in ways she recognises but does not lean on. She has worked to build a career that stands on her own terms.

 

She grew up in Clontarf in Dublin, with her father, who passed away suddenly from a heart attack in 2010 and her mother, Morah, as well as younger siblings Rex, Bonnie, Elliott and Babette. Some of her siblings have followed her into the creative sphere, with Rex an actor and director; Bonnie, a make-up artist, influencer and podcaster; and Babette is a model and wellness content creator.

 

Having previously explored aspects of parenthood with her friend and former 2FM colleague Jennifer Zamparelli in the podcast, Jen and Lottie do… Parenting, she has since moved on to podcasting pastures new with No One Else Will Listen, where Lottie and her New York-based sister Bonnie catch up weekly over FaceTime.

She was cautious about doing the podcast at first. "I was very wary doing something with a family member because I had never done it before," she says.

"We had a little unwritten rule that we did not work with each other to protect relationships."

But there has been no conflict at all. "It has brought us closer together," she says. What surprises her most is how direct she can be in that setting.

"There is something about working with a sibling. You are so much more easily able to say, ‘That was sh*t’ or ‘Let’s do that again.’ It is just easier."

Sometimes, though, it is too easy. "I find myself saying things I would ordinarily never let myself say. There have been times when myself and Bonnie have gone, ‘Jesus, maybe Mum will not speak to us if we put that out.’"

 

For someone who appears open, she is clear about boundaries, having grown up in the public eye. "It might come across like I am sharing a lot, but it is very calculated," she explains. "I know what I am willing to share and what I am not willing to share. My son is a very clear line. I might share bits and bobs on social media, but I am the only person I would ever allow that to happen with."

 

The pressure of being in the spotlight is something she has struggled with on occasion. "I'd be completely lying if I said I was brilliant at dealing with it; I definitely succumb to it," she admits. "I think there's an impossible standard placed on women in particular.

"People say there's not, but the reality is, if I don't adhere to certain standards, people will let me know all about it, whether that's in a comment on Instagram or other forms. You just have to be really careful about how much of the noise you let in. I generally tend to have a pretty hard line on not looking at messages that are sent to me."

 

Her work within RTÉ has evolved during her years there. She says she is now far more comfortable being herself on air. "Maybe at the beginning everybody wants to try and be what they think people are looking for," she says. "I think the magic happens when you are just yourself. I have become more confident in wanting to tell the stories and highlight things that are important to me."

 

Two female broadcasters she especially admires are Sarah McInerney and the late Marian Finucane. "They are voices of courage and truth tellers," she says.

"We are all looking for respect. I want to have that level of respect and courage."

 

Lottie is open to new career directions. "I want to diversify a lot more now," she says. "I want to get into documentaries, I want to do more television, I want to broaden my podcasting repertoire. I want to get back into theatre. I want to perform again."

 

She speaks warmly about performing. "That performance made me feel alive," she says of her winning appearance on Dancing With the Stars. "Performers are my people; they make my weirdness feel normal. I need to get back on stage. I will get there."

 

She is excited about DWTS’s future, with new head judge Oti Mabuse replacing Loraine Barry and joining returning judges Brian Redmond, Arthur Gourounlian and Karen Byrne. "I am a massive Oti fan," she says.

"My jaw dropped when I saw the announcement. I could not believe it. I think she's going to be an incredible addition to the show. Obviously, I think Loraine, the queen of ballroom, is amazing. But for her to be passing the baton onto Oti is just next level. She's just one of the most beautiful dancers. I would say she's going to bring a huge level of expertise to the show."

 

Outside of work, her days revolve around Wolf, the four-year-old son she has with husband Fabio April, who she married in 2017 in Italy. "My time is calculated in terms of my son," she says. "It has to be worthwhile to be away from him."

As a result, me-time for Lottie is rare. "If I had me-time, I would be reading or listening to podcasts," she says. "Or if I was feeling self-indulgent, I would get a massage. A hardcore one. I want a woman standing on my back cracking me," she laughs.

 

Motherhood has changed how she views everything. "I was a different person before Wolf," she says. "I probably put too much weight on my work. I was raised to always be the hardest working person in the room, always be the first to arrive, and the last to leave. Just growing up in my house, it was really important to be a strong team player and hard worker.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but I probably ran with it to my detriment. I think having my son forced me to slow down and live in the moment, listen a bit more and realise that work is not my whole personality. There's so much more to life. He has given me more in his four short years than anything."

 

This year marks 15 years since the death of her father, Gerry. "He is constantly the echo of my backbone," she says. "He is my moral compass. He raised me, so he is always with me."

She tries to keep his presence alive for her son, though it is not simple. "He still finds it hard to understand he never met Grandad," she says. "I think my dad would have been an incredible granddad. He would have been utterly obsessed with him."

 

What does she think Gerry would have made of her career as a broadcaster? "I don't know. I hope he would have been really proud of us all. I think he would have found a little bit of humour in it, so I can imagine him laughing," she says.

"I think he would have been very encouraging because he was always very encouraging of whatever it was we claimed we wanted to do as kids and young adults, in whatever field we wanted to enter. I definitely think he would have got a giggle out of the fact that I do broadcasts from the studio he sat in for most of his life every day now, and that isn't lost on me."

 

As to how she spends Christmas, each year, she and Fabio divvy it up. Last year, it was with her mum, so this year lunch will be with Fabio’s mother, but a big Christmas breakfast in her mother’s apartment with all her family will precede it.

"The Italians do it a little differently. We'll have to eat pasta and then have turkey and all the trimmings. Loose clothing will be worn. But it’s amazing.

I love getting a bit of the Italian tradition as well as the Irish and it’s really important for Wolf to have that as well. My siblings are going to fly home – Babs lives in the UK and she’s coming back and Bonnie will be flying home from Brooklyn. It will be so lovely to have everybody back again."

 

RTÉ Lifestyle.