TV presenter Kathryn Thomas has opened up about her parents’ divorce – saying she didn’t like going home after it.
The Q102 host’s parents. Anne and Gwynne Thomas, split when she was in her early 20s and the star told of the effects it had on her trying to adjust to a new normal.
The Carlow native admitted life ‘doesn’t ever feel the same again’ one her parents split up.
Pic: Kathryn Thomas/Instagram
She said: ‘My mom and dad split up when I was 21, 22.
‘One hundred percent. I don’t think any child goes through, no matter what age, their parents splitting up for it not to have an impact. It was difficult for a while until they figured out their new norm. It doesn’t ever feel the same again. I didn’t like going back home,’ she said of the family home in Carlow.
‘My dad being in an apartment was really weird, like really odd. And then we never did Christmas again at home, so it was almost like I never really got to say goodbye to the house.
‘Even clearing out the house [when her mother moved out], my sister went down. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t go back to the house. From the moment they separated, I did Christmases in my house,’ she told the Sunday Independent.
Kathryn Thomas pictured at the opening night of the Landmark Productions and Kate Horton ProductIons presentation of The Weir in association with 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Pic: Brian McEvoy
But the RTE star said her parents split was ‘amicable’, adding: ‘They’re great friends now, I think we were more concerned really about my younger brother. He’s 13 years younger than me.
Kathryn is set to host her new show, ‘Young Forever: The Death of Ageing?’, which airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on April 13 and 20 at 9.35pm.
But she said she received her own diagnosis while presenting the show – as doctors warned her cortisol levels are ‘through the roof’ and she was edging on burnout.
Through her research for the show, the mother-of-two visited a longevity clinic in London which monitored her own sleep patterns for a week.
‘They said my cortisol levels are through the roof. The practitioner was like, “we need to have a talk. You live in a heightened and constant state of stress”. And I said, “sorry, I actually wake up in the morning, I’ve got great energy”. And she said, “but it’s your cortisol levels”. Even when I’m asleep, I am constantly in a state of stress now,’ she added.