{"id":249290,"date":"2026-01-17T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/249290\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:03:07","slug":"ryan-tubridy-sought-therapy-to-cope-with-really-dark-feelings-in-wake-of-rte-pay-scandal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/249290\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Tubridy sought therapy to cope with \u2018really dark\u2019 feelings in wake of RT\u00c9 pay scandal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadcaster Ryan Tubridy<\/a> sought therapy to help him cope with \u201creally dark\u201d feelings due to the intensity of criticism he received during the RT\u00c9<\/a> payments scandal that precipitated his exit from the State broadcaster.<\/p>\n

The former Late Late Show presenter said he \u201cwasn\u2019t in the whole of his health\u201d after the crisis blew up in June 2023, following revelations that his remuneration had been secretly topped up over several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was heavy, heavy stuff,\u201d he said this week in a wide-ranging interview at his Dublin home with The Irish Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was down, I was on the ground. I saw myself as a character in this story that I wasn\u2019t writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Tubridy said he accepted some of the blame for not challenging RT\u00c9\u2019s decision to publicly understate his salary from 2017. <\/p>\n

\u2018Everything went black\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Read the full interview with Ryan Tubridy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he says RT\u00c9 was to blame for \u201cthe bulk\u201d of the controversy that erupted. The initial furore over payments to Mr Tubridy later morphed into a wider scandal over RT\u00c9\u2019s lax financial controls. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think if I had my head screwed on better, and if I was a bit more attentive to that side of my life, I would have shouted louder. That\u2019s on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want [the public] to think I haven\u2019t thought about that or that I don\u2019t care. I do care, but I can\u2019t take the blame for the entire organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Tubridy, who moved back to Dublin from London in recent weeks following the end of his daily show with Virgin Radio UK, said he would not rule out a possible future return to RT\u00c9 \u201cif the project was right\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said there had been \u201czero\u201d talks with the organisation about it. When asked if he would be prepared to go back to RT\u00c9, he replied: \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

The presenter confirmed he met RT\u00c9\u2019s director general Kevin Bakhurst<\/a> \u201cfor coffee\u201d last summer, but he said they did not discuss his potential return.<\/p>\n

He confirmed he had been on the verge of returning to his RT\u00c9 Radio show in a deal verbally agreed in August 2023. But Mr Bakhurst subsequently ended the talks over public statements that Mr Tubridy made about the payments scandal.<\/p>\n

Mr Tubridy said he believed the RT\u00c9 director general was \u201cpushed\u201d by the organisation\u2019s board into ending those talks with him. \u201cI think the board might have been a little bit enthusiastic about my departure.\u201d<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said this week that Mr Tubridy\u2019s \u201ccharacterisation of events\u201d around the ending of those talks \u201cis incorrect\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broadcaster Ryan Tubridy sought therapy to help him cope with \u201creally dark\u201d feelings due to the intensity of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,47232,125027,6084],"class_list":["post-249290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kevin-bakhurst","tag-rte-pay-controversy","tag-ryan-tubridy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}