![\"Dawn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2C14VABZ1CMSYYYWH5Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDawn O\u2019Porter, who is married to Irish actor Chris O\u2019Dowd, on quitting drinking overnight \u2013 which is something she \u201cnever thought\u201d she would do.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some major lifestyle changes in the last five years \u2013 I\u2019ve quit drinking, which I never thought I would do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter, a mother-of-two based in London, stresses she does not want to be \u201cpreachy\u201d about quitting alcohol, but she woke up one day and was \u201csick of being hungover\u201d and decided, almost overnight, to stop drinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve partied for 30 years. If someone wants to call me boring, they can go ahead,\u201d she says, jokingly.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter adds that she \u201cstill imagines [herself] as an old lady with a sherry\u201d, so this might not be forever \u2013 but for now, she says: \u201cThat is the biggest act of self-care I think I\u2019ve ever done. People\u2019s perception of how fun you are really changes, and I just have to block out all of that noise and focus on myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you realise is, a year later, no one actually cares. My social life hasn\u2019t changed at all, I still go out all the time, I still have as much fun as ever. It was just, you have to reassess who you are without a drink in your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter says she is feeling more \u201cproductive\u201d than ever after focusing on self-care in recent years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dawn O’Porter with her husband Chris O’Dowd. Photo: Alamy\/PA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t always look after myself\u201d, she says. \u201cI think I was quite wild when I was younger, health and wellness was not on the agenda. Fun, success, working really hard, striving, those were all the things that drove me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow my life is centred around me taking care of myself \u2013 that has come with being 47, it has come with being a mum, and wanting to be really, really productive. I gear myself constantly around, what can I do to make me feel as good as possible, look as good as possible, and be as productive as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her other tip for self-love is strength training, something which becomes increasingly important as we get older.<\/p>\n
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However, having never been a \u201cnaturally sporty person\u201d, this is something she has had to work on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a natural exerciser\u2026 I was never sporty at school,\u201d she explains. \u201cI don\u2019t have that craving for those endorphins, I would rather eat a burger or some cake, whatever it is. But there is just no doubt that, at this point in your life, if you exercise, especially with weight training, it has a phenomenal effect on the way you feel physically and mentally. When I started doing it, only about six or eight months ago, I felt totally in control of myself, and my body felt really strong, and that was an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter enjoys cooking as well, and she focuses on eating \u201chealthy food\u201d in her day-to-day life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really indulgent by nature and me fighting my indulgent nature is a daily effort\u2026 I love food so much, it is the love of my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI work on my own, I can make most of my own meals, so 80pc of the time I\u2019m really looking after myself, 20pc I eat what the hell I want. If I go out for dinner, I don\u2019t even think about it, I eat the most delicious thing on the menu that I can get.<\/p>\n
![\"Dawn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/49a972e6-fecc-40a8-a775-8bee472d0623.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Dawn O’Porter plays classic love songs on her radio show. Photo: Matt Crossick\/Classic FM\/PA<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds, Thursday, February 19<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in my life, I don\u2019t think about calories or anything like that. I just really focus on health as opposed to anything else when it comes to food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her final rules for self-love and self-care include reading books that \u201cserve your soul\u201d, only following accounts on social media that \u201cmake you feel good\u201d and listening to music.<\/p>\n
My female friendships, I could not live without them, and I celebrate them as much as I celebrate my marriage<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter, who shares two sons, Art (11) and Valentine (8) with actor husband Chris O\u2019Dowd, says she often has \u201cClassic FM blaring in the background\u201d while working and writing, as this keeps her \u201cpeaceful\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always someone who took care of other people, and now this new version of me, where I really take care of myself first, has meant that I am so much better at taking care of other people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that is the biggest lesson that I\u2019ve learned, the older that I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Porter is now hosting a series on Classic FM, celebrating love in all its many forms, and she says that self-love is just as important as the other loves in her life.<\/p>\n
She believes \u201clove comes in so many forms\u201d but added that self-love, along with food and classical music, is her \u201cvibe of the year\u201d.<\/p>\n
I have my husband, who is the big love of my life, I\u2019ve got my kids and that\u2019s another kind of love<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my husband, who is the big love of my life, I\u2019ve got my kids and that\u2019s another kind of love, and then I have my girlfriends,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I spend most of my time in my friend WhatsApp groups \u2013 it\u2019s the first thing I do in the morning and it\u2019s the last thing I do at night, saying goodnight to everybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy female friendships, I could not live without them, and I celebrate them as much as I celebrate my marriage, the love of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about getting older is I give those friendships so much of my time\u2026 I nurture them and I take care of them, and I think that\u2019s something that changes the older you get.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bClassical Love Themes with Dawn O\u2019Porter is on Fridays at 9pm on Classic FM and the Global Player app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dawn O\u2019Porter, who is married to Irish actor Chris O\u2019Dowd, on quitting drinking overnight \u2013 which is something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[77748,93,61,60,898,60422],"class_list":["post-306286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-daily-features","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-news-in-90-seconds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306286","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=306286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}