Ryan Tubridy on his insecurity about the future: ‘I don’t know where it’s going’

Ryan Tubridy has opened up about one of his biggest insecurities – he doesn’t know what the future will hold, but he says this can also be viewed as a positive thing

Ryan Tubridy has opened up about his biggest insecurity – uncertainty about his future.

The former Late Late Show host went through a lot of changes in 2023 after he left the national broadcaster’s flagship talk show and was later embroiled in controversy over the RTÉ payments scandal.

Since then, he’s launched his own podcast, The Bookshelf, and moved to London for a spell to host a weekday show for Virgin Media radio. He now hosts a weekend radio show for The Times.

However, he says it’s taken time to adjust to the idea of being freelance after spending years with RTÉ.

“I feel like I’ve hit a nice groove at the moment, so I don’t want to say that I’m missing something. Things are going very well. I’ve found love, I’ve got good tempo with my family, career too.

“In some ways, the biggest insecurity is certainty about the future. I don’t know where it’s going. Work-wise, for example, I’m all over the place, in a really exciting way.

“For 25 years, I was eating a six-pack of the same chocolate bar every single week. Now, I’ve got a selection box – I don’t quite know which bar is going to come out next. It’s more exciting, but it’s less secure, so that’s probably it. And if that is it, sure aren’t I lucky,” he told the Irish Independent.

Speaking about leaving RTÉ, Ryan says people often say it “happened for a reason”, but he isn’t sure he agrees. “Would I have chosen for it to happen? No, but am I happy with the outcome? Yes, because I was coasting, and I was drifting a bit. That’s why I left The Late Late Show. I wasn’t getting the satisfaction from it, and I was tired. It was time to do something different.

“If what happened subsequent to that hadn’t happened, I’m not so sure I would have set up my podcast or gone to London, which I had always been promising myself I would do. I would have clung to the wreckage and hoped that something else would come along.

“The only reason I left was because I knew it was time to go, and it was a pity that the rest followed. People say that what happened was the reason I left, and it wasn’t. I was tired and was going to do a disservice to everyone, including myself, so I’m OK and can sleep well at night knowing the truth.”

He enjoys being more free with the kind of work he can take on. “[I] am a different person now. The DNA has changed and the expectations of me have changed too; I’m unshackled. When you work for an organisation, you represent them and therefore there are expectations of you, and now I don’t.

“I can’t remember the last time I wore a suit. I think I’m much more of an open book. It’s a whole new world order for me. There’s a lack of being beholden to middle and senior managers, and that is very liberating.”

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