Former RTÉ journalist Caitriona Perry prefers to keep her family life private, but she did explain that she’s able to spend more time with her husband and two kids after leaving RTÉ
Caitriona Perry at the White House Correspondents Dinner(Image: Instagram)
Broadcaster Caitriona Perry is a well-known face to anyone in Ireland. She used to work for RTÉ as a news anchor and foreign correspondent.
During her 16 years with the national broadcaster, she interviewed key politicians around the globe and heads of state, including the likes of President Donald Trump. She worked as Washington Correspondent for RTÉ News, as well as a co-anchor of the Six One news.
Back in 2023, she made a big career move. She left RTÉ and Ireland to move to Washington DC, where she works as BBC’s News Chief Presenter.
In her personal life, Caitriona has a husband and two children, a girl and a boy. However, she keeps her family life very private, and she has never revealed the name of her husband and two children.
“My husband doesn’t work in the media and doesn’t want people to know his name and that’s fair enough,” she previously told Irish Country Magazine.
“I feel like so much of our lives are shared now through social media that you have to keep something back for yourself. I think your work is your work and your home life is your home life and you should be able to separate them.”
Despite her high profile job, Caitriona actually has more time with her family now.
“Actually, I get to be more with my children doing this job than when I was working on Six One. I wasn’t home until eight o’clock every single night, so when you have small kids, you’re missing every single dinner and bedtime. Now, I have different working hours, and a lot of the time I’m home for that.”
She also explained that when she has to travel for work, she batch cooks food for her kids.
“My colleagues laugh at me. I turned up to one of the conventions on a really early morning flight and they were like, ‘Oh, I’m so tired. I was out for dinner last night.’
“I was saying, ‘Well, I was up at midnight making lasagne,’ because you’re batch-cooking, just to help when you’re not there and you’re on the road. I’m a feeder,” she previously told the Irish Independent.
“Even if I’m not there, they know that Mommy made that for them. And of course, now they’re conditioned to ask every time I come in the door with the suitcase if I’ve bought them a present.”
Living in DC means that a lot of working parents are travelling, she explained. “Most of the moms have very big important jobs and travel a lot, so it’s like, ‘My mom’s in Bolivia today.’ I mean, they can watch me on the TV, and they find that exciting.
“I’m wearing all the pretty dresses and the pretty shoes and all that, which is not what I look like when I’m at home.
“But you just have to find a way to make it work, and that’s different for everyone. For some, it’s stepping out of their career for a few years; for others, it’s trying to manage.
“I think your children and your family are served best when you are happy in yourself. Work is very important for me… being a journalist is part of my soul and my core.”
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