Lucy Kennedy has been a familiar face on Irish screens for years, but it’s her warmth and easy, chatty nature that have made her one of the country’s most-loved presenters.
She’s exactly as you’d expect away from our screens. At our shoot for RSVP’s May issue, Lucy arrives full of energy, laughing loudly and chatting freely — the ultimate girl’s girl you’d want to sit and have a glass of wine with — before sprinting out the door to make the school run.
Between early mornings on the radio and weekends filming Living With Lucy, Lucy is juggling a packed career alongside life at home with husband Richie and their three children, Jack, Holly and Jess. Add in a new TV project and the release of her first adult novel The Mini Breakers, and it’s a particularly full-on time. But Lucy admits that while life is busy, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The older I get the more I try to just do what I enjoy, and say no to the things I know I won’t,” she tells RSVP Magazine.
But Lucy admits that despite the fact that she is completely at home on screen — and even when filming Living With Lucy in her pyjamas or with no makeup — she is not as naturally confident as people might assume.
“I’m confident in a strange way,” she admits. “I’m not confident standing on the red carpet — I’m anxious, I feel very self-conscious. But I’m confident in myself and my own abilities.
“I could talk to anyone, whether it was the Queen of England or not. I can find a common denominator to relate to anybody because I genuinely love people.”
The key difference, she says, is that she hates the focus being on her, rather than the person she’s chatting with.
“My role in Living With Lucy is just to get the best out of that person,” she explains. “That’s my job. I’m more confident interviewing someone than being interviewed myself because I think, well, who the hell wants to learn about me?”
It’s that genuine curiosity about others that has made the show such a success.
“I see it like a perfect chat show because I get more than 15 minutes with my guest,” she says. “It’s my favourite thing to do in the world. I just adore it and I am still giddy about it.”
Her now-famous suitcase — a battered Dunnes Stores case she refuses to replace — has become part of the show’s identity.
“He’s my lucky case,” she laughs. “If that case could talk, most people I’ve lived with would be arrested. That case has an autobiography in it.”
And while Living With Lucy has been a great success, Lucy admits she’s deeply protective over it, and is adamant she would never live with someone she thought would damage the show, no matter how much money was involved.
“I know within seconds of meeting someone whether they could hold the show,” she says. “You need someone who has enough layers to sustain at least 14 conversations over three days. It’s a big ask.”
And while she has lived with divisive characters, there are people she has drawn a line with.
“I said yes to Katie Hopkins, even though I wasn’t keen on her as a person, but I could see that there was enough interest in her. But I have said no to certain politicians who I just feel wouldn’t necessarily do the programme any favours or people who don’t complement the brand,” she explains.
“Now and again I’ll fly close enough to the wind and live with someone who is very controversial like Katie Hopkins or Caitlyn Jenner. There’s nobody I fear or worry I couldn’t take on. I do believe I can take on anybody. I will live with divisive people once I think that ultimately they’re not bad people that I’m platforming.”
“Caitlyn has family from Israel, and a deep connection because her dad fought in the war and he was rescued by a family from Israel. But when it came out that she was pro Israel and went there the following week, people were so cross with me. And I was saying, ‘Guys, I did live with her, but we’re not friends’. We can’t live in a world where we can’t listen to someone else’s opinion, whether we agree with them or not. And I did not agree with Caitlyn, but that’s not to say I couldn’t talk to her.”
Still, despite having the firm confidence that she could take on or spend time with anyone, Lucy insists she has always been more introverted than people realise.
“A stranger would laugh at that, but my friends know that I am like that,” she says. “I’m more comfortable in a local pub with my friends than going somewhere where I’d be seen. It’s just not me.”
In fact, her ideal evening is far from glamorous.
“I am truly at my happiest in my pyjamas, sitting down watching Netflix with a glass of wine on a Friday night,” she says. “I love having friends over at home. I adore my family — but I’m not particularly sociable.”
The Mini Breakers by Lucy Kennedy, published by Bonnier Books UK, is available in book stores from 7 May.
Pick up the latest issue of RSVP Magazine to read Lucy’s chat in full, on shelves now.
- Photography by Kieran Harnett
- Styling by Laura Mullett,
- IG: @lauramullettstylist
- Hair by Sarah Nugent, IG: @sarahhair.x
- Make-up by Jade Mullett, IG:
- @jademullettmua
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