After getting to be Julia Roberts for a night in last week's movies and musicals episode of Dancing With the Stars, you could expect Mairead Ronan to be tripping over the glamour of it all. Thankfully, the presenter is here to assure viewers that not everything is red dresses, cocktails and diamonds in her life.
Though she is having an absolute ball. There's no Hollywood smoke and mirrors to that.
Only five months after giving birth to daughter Bonnie, Mairead has been tangoing up a storm each week, something she says has done wonders for her health and fitness after pregnancy. Speaking to RTÉ Lifestyle, she outlined how she gets it all done.
"It's brilliant and there's no better way to get your body back than to, y'know, use it for seven hours a day, every day. My thighs have probably never been so good and belly's still there. Five months, it's still there", she said, laughing.
"But it's a brilliant way to get my body back. I'm a mum of three. It's my body, though! I need to take it back at some stage!"
This exercise can count as multitasking in that case, as alongside her weekly jaunts up and down the dance floor, Mairead juggles being a doting mum to her two other children, Dara (11) and Eliza (2). Once her maternity leave ends, she'll be back to hosting Ireland's Fittest Family, though at this stage perhaps she could compete.
She's certainly a shining example of juggling a lot on your plate, but Mairead is reluctant to cast herself as too much of a role model, given how much mothers do on a daily basis as it is.
"I'm getting all these gorgeous messages from mum going 'fair play to you, you're doing great, fair play for doing this'", she explained.
"I've gotten back to people saying 'but you're working all day' and there's women finishing work at 6:30 at night, getting into traffic, getting home, cooking dinner or the husband has started to cook dinner, put a dark wash on, drop my kid to GAA training..."
The difference she sees is that her job is much more exuberantly glamourous and easy to enjoy. This combined with her naturally happy and cheerful disposition makes for a job that feels like extended play time.
"I'm doing the same thing as them. I'm just having the craic all day at work", she said. "I have friends who are in work and they're exactly what I described, they're heading into traffic, they're managing or juggling a house, kids, a job pressure, emails coming through at 9pm at night. I have that but I'm dancing."
Dancing aside, her feet are fully on the ground as she sees how exceptional her days are, just five months after giving birth.
"And this isn't forever. This is just a short space of time, I'll give it my all and hopefully I'll stay for as long as possible."
