{"id":304282,"date":"2026-02-18T13:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304282\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:09:10","slug":"john-mcareavey-reveals-moment-michaela-signalled-to-him-to-move-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/304282\/","title":{"rendered":"John McAreavey reveals moment Michaela signalled to him to move on"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McAreavey has revealed the beautiful moment he knew he could move forward with his personal life after Michaela’s death.<\/p>\n

The now dad-of-two will celebrate his ten year anniversary with his second wife Tara<\/a> in September and their meeting came after a truly special moment. <\/p>\n

That moment came in 2012, almost two years after Michaela was killed on their honeymoon in Mauritius. <\/p>\n

\"MickeyMickey Harte with his daughter Michaela. Pic: Handout\/PA<\/p>\n

John had arranged a Match for Michaela event at Casement park in Belfast on a Saturday that November and planned a weekend trip to Galway the following weekend with friends to decompress after an emotional few weeks. <\/p>\n

As part of their tribute to Michaela<\/a>, they released Chinese style lanterns in the air and John recalled how the following Monday he woke up with a lightness he hadn’t felt in a longtime. <\/p>\n

Then something strange happened when he watched back the footage from the event later in the week. <\/p>\n

\"MichaelaMichaela McAreavey. Pic: John McAreavey Instagram<\/p>\n

‘It wasn’t an overly conscious decision [of] “oh I wanna go and meet someone” or anything but it’s really funny and I do believe God gives gifts so you can recall the match for Michaela we did in Caement park?’ he told The GAA Social podcast.<\/a> <\/p>\n

‘…We had 20 thousand people up at the match for Michaela… I was heavily involved and very busy with it all because I was working at the same time.’<\/p>\n

‘I said I need to have something after this so me and my friends had arranged to go to Galway the week after Match for Michaela but it was obviously a very emotional time as well.’<\/p>\n

\"TaraTara and John McAreavey at Mumford and Sons at Malahide Castle. Pic: John McAreavey Instagram <\/p>\n

‘I can always recall on the Monday morning waking up after the Match for Michaela which was on a Saturday, I felt a lot lighter, something had definitely changed you know for me?<\/p>\n

‘There was a lightness and a positivity that I’d never sort of felt for a long time and then I went to Galway on the Saturday night and I bumped into Tara and this conversation struck [up] and off it went.’<\/p>\n

‘There was also something significant for me at that time at the Match for Michaela. As part of the event ceremoiny we did these Chinese lantern things you know and it must have been during the week, you know, when I was actually watching back on TV, they actually went up into the sky and they actually formed the shape of an ‘M.’<\/p>\n

\"TaraTara and John McAreavey enjoy festive getaway. Pic: John McAreavey Instagram<\/p>\n

‘I read that as Michaela just saying “John I’m fine here” you know and off you go type of thing and move on forward there.’<\/p>\n

‘So that was a big thing and then a couple of days later I met Tara so when I talk about God giving gifts, that’s what I mean.’<\/p>\n

John went on to reveal that for Christmas a couple of years later, Tara gifted him a framed jersey from the match along with a picture of the lanterns in the air. <\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn McAreavey (centre), his sister Claire and Mark Harte, brother of murdered honeymooner Michaela McAreavey, during a press conference. Pic: PA Wire<\/p>\n

Speaking of his faith, John said that despite his enormous tragedy, he feels that God has always looked after him and attributed that faith to Michaela. <\/p>\n

It’s just how it felt, right from the moment it happened, I felt that warmth and that protection and that feeling of being looked after so I never really felt alone too much in that way. I think a lot of that was probably down to Michaela as well, because of the amount of faith she had in God. <\/p>\n

He went on talk of how he counts his blessings in life and cherishes the time he had Michaela. <\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn McAreavey and Michaela McAreavey on their honeymoon. Pic: PA Wire<\/p>\n

‘Yes, I’ve had this awful traumatic experience but I got to have Michaela and I got to experience her for a short time so I guess it’s about perspective.’<\/p>\n

John also touched on the pain of losing Michaela and how he is glad in one sense that she didn’t have to suffer through what he has been going through. <\/p>\n

‘I never onced asked the question why did thishave to happen to me? I was more I just felt so soprry for Michaela, probably at the very beginning I was probably coming from a place where I’m glad i’m the one having to suffer this now because it had of maybe happened the other way around and I had been involved in an accident and I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t want Michaela to experience what I was experiencing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John McAreavey has revealed the beautiful moment he knew he could move forward with his personal life after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-304282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304282","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=304282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}