{"id":451558,"date":"2026-05-16T07:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/451558\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:12:11","slug":"sinead-kennedy-my-life-is-busy-and-chaotic-i-embrace-every-moment-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/451558\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin\u00e9ad Kennedy: My life is busy and chaotic, I embrace every moment of it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sin\u00e9ad Kennedy bursts into the bar in The Imperial Hotel. Bursts is the only term I can use; she\u2019s a bundle of energy. She has 30 minutes to chat with me before she has to run back to the RT\u00c9 Cork studios, where they broadcast the Today show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all go,\u201d she says. \u201cI was running out the door for this interview and they were trying to get me into hair and makeup! Sure, it\u2019s grand, I\u2019ll get it done when we\u2019re finished here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organised chaos is how Kennedy describes her life. She\u2019s live on the Today show on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the occasional Wednesday, with co-host and Irish Examiner agony uncle Daith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9. At home during the week, she\u2019s solo parenting her two young children \u2014 Indie, five, and Theo, two and a half. Her husband Conor works in Brussels with the European Defence Agency. He\u2019s gone during the week, home at weekends.<\/p>\n

\"D\u00e1ith\u00edD\u00e1ith\u00ed O’S\u00e9, Maura Derrane and Sin\u00e9ad Kennedy. Picture: Miki Barlok.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite busy,\u201d she admits (quite the understatement), \u201cI have friends who look at me and are like, \u2018how do you guys make it work?\u2019 It\u2019s not normal how I live. I\u2019m very aware it\u2019s not normal, the constant flying over and back is chaotic.\u201d But right now, Kennedy wouldn\u2019t change a thing. In fact, she says she \u201cthrives on the chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n

Live TV is the buzz she loves. \u201cWe obviously book things months in advance but life happens too, and things can change at the drop of a hat, so everything is open to movement. It\u2019s a lot of moving parts but the team here are so organised. I just bounce in and I\u2019m like \u2018what\u2019s happening, where am I going?\u2019 My work life has always been that kind of chaotic energy and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a full-on life, the Ballincollig native says she lives for the summers when the Today show breaks for three months and her and her kids de-camp to Brussels.<\/p>\n

\"SineadSinead Kennedy and her husband Conor Kirwan Picture: Robbie Reynolds<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best switch off. Conor\u2019s life doesn\u2019t change too much in the sense that he\u2019s still going to work every day, but when he comes home, we\u2019re all there.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her daughter Indie, this precious time with her dad is invaluable.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s mad about her dad, and she\u2019s old enough now to be looking forward to the time we have together in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the mum-of-two, there are no bells and whistles to their summer plans; it\u2019s just about having the family together for three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo live that normal family life is so exciting for us. We\u2019re so present. I just get to immerse myself in being a mom.\u201d Kennedy\u2019s face lights up as she describes the simple pleasures of seeing her kids playing in the back garden of their home in Brussels. \u201cSitting in the sun, watching them play in the sandpit in the back garden, it\u2019s heaven. That\u2019s all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, the summer acts as a reset for the busy TV host. Having that sustained period of time together as a family settles her, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t pour from an empty cup, and once we\u2019re all together in Brussels my cup runneth over. Throw in a bit of sun, and I\u2019m happy out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then September comes and Kennedy and her children return to Cork, and it\u2019s back to the running around again. The 42-year-old is quick to say that this is no hardship. \u201cIt\u2019s a great gig. The Today show is such a good fit for me.\u201d Since she started on the show in September 2020, Kennedy has slotted in seamlessly. She enjoys a great on- and off-screen friendship with co-host \u00d3 S\u00e9, who she\u2019s known since 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on the kids TV show S@ttitude at the time, and we\u2019d all be together in makeup at the same time every day, Monday to Friday. when I was on Winning Streak, the odd time when Marty might be unavailable, Daith\u00ed would be called in, so we had presented together a few times.\u201d The pair also co-presented a live New Year\u2019s Eve show, and their chemistry was apparent to the powers that be in RT\u00c9. \u201cWhen the Cork gig <\/p>\n

\"MartyMarty Whelan and Sinead Kennedy in front of the iconic Winning Streak wheel<\/p>\n

became available, I think I was a natural fit there.\u201d For live TV, trusting your co-host is essential, says Kennedy: \u201cWe know we have each other\u2019s backs.\u201d The pair enjoy \u201cslagging\u201d each other, but Kennedy says they know the intent behind the banter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just having the craic. I\u2019m never trying to undermine or minimise him; we\u2019re not like that with one another. We know each other\u2019s boundaries and limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy is a natural at live TV work; she\u2019s spent more than half her life doing it. She started work at RT\u00c9 when she was just 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did kids TV for 10 years and I absolutely loved it. I learned so much. You do everything. You write your script, you book guests, you\u2019re heading out at all hours of the day and night, because so and so might be in Dublin for X or Y, and next thing, you\u2019re interviewing them on the red carpet. There was no set timetable. It was manic, all go, go, go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sin\u00e9adSin\u00e9ad Kennedy began working at RT\u00c9 from the age of 19. Picture Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

In 2013, she moved from kids TV \u201cupstairs to entertainment\u201d co-presenting Winning Streak with Marty Whelan. At the beginning, she says she was still in kids TV mode: \u201cI must have been the loudest person on that floor!<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so used to the madness of young people and keeping that energy up all the time. It took a little while to get my head around the slower pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up until this point, Kennedy had been living in Dublin. \u201cAs a Corkonian, I went there a bit reluctantly at the start, but then I didn\u2019t want to leave. I loved life there. You\u2019ve got something every night, a new bar, a new restaurant that you haven\u2019t tried, there\u2019s something happening all the time. I loved the buzz of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A change in Conor\u2019s job saw the couple re-locate to Cork in 2018, though Kennedy still travelled up and down for Winning Streak. Eight years later, she can\u2019t imagine moving back to Dublin. Being in Cork also means she\u2019s close to her mother, who she calls her \u201clifeline\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout her, I\u2019d be in trouble. I\u2019d be lost, because she\u2019s incredible. Shout out to any parent doing it alone or without a support network. I don\u2019t know how anybody does it, I\u2019d be totally lost without that bit of help.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for free time… \u201cI\u2019m so exhausted at the end of the day that I can\u2019t even take off my makeup,\u201d she laughs. When the kids get a bit older, however, she has great plans \u2014 like taking up paddleboarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve great plans for the future, but right now, I switch off with a bit of TV in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"D\u00e1ith\u00edD\u00e1ith\u00ed O’S\u00e9, Maura Derrane and Sin\u00e9ad Kennedy on the set of the Today show for their 2000th episode. Picture: Gerard McCarthy Photography<\/p>\n

In person, there\u2019s a naturalness to Kennedy that echoes her on-screen presence.<\/p>\n

She loves her fashion, often styling herself for the show, and though she appreciates getting her hair and makeup done, this is far removed from her everyday look, \u201cIf I put on a lick of mascara between the end of May and the start of September, that\u2019d be quite impressive.\u201d Like every woman with young children, Kennedy says she\u2019s last on her own priority list. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the thick of it with two small kids, you\u2019re last on your to do list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now her life is full, but Kennedy says she misses making documentaries.<\/p>\n

While working on Winning Streak, the on-air host produced several award-winning documentaries including Age, Sex, Location on RT\u00c9 Radio One, which focused on online predators, This is Me on RT\u00c9 One, which documented the late Laura Brennan\u2019s battle with cervical cancer, and The Crossing on RT\u00c9 One, where she joined the crew of the Irish navy and witnessed the rescue of over 2,000 migrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kinds of documentaries I like to make are really immersive; I find I get lost in them. So I don\u2019t think I\u2019m in a position right now to go down that route, or to re-engage those creative juices, but once the kids start school, it\u2019s something I\u2019d like to get back into for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love making them, because you are the conduit through which people can tell their stories. And it\u2019s such a privilege to be in a position to be able to work on those kinds of things and bring those stories to light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her ambition is still there, she\u2019s just got different priorities right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime goes by so fast. I blink and I miss something amazing that my kids have done. I want to soak it all in, to press pause on everything, because in no time at all we\u2019ll be having a conversation about them leaving, going to college, to pastures new, whatever it is they choose to do. And I\u2019d be like, \u2018how did I just not embrace every minute of that\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sin\u00e9ad Kennedy bursts into the bar in The Imperial Hotel. Bursts is the only term I can use;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,19930],"class_list":["post-451558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-this-much-i-know-column-shape-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451558","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=451558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}