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OT's Jean on her pregnancy: 'I have the whole country behind me'

Updated / Wednesday, 27 Feb 2019 16:14
Jean Tierney
Jean Tierney

Tonight on RTÉ One, our leaders will take their transformations to the catwalk. After being on the Operation Transformation plan for 8 weeks, their health and fitness have well and truly transformed and tonight's show, we'll find out just how far they’ve come.

Ahead of the grand finale, we caught up with this year's most talked about leader Jean Tierney as she reflects on the past eight weeks and shares her advice to future leaders.

At just 33-years of age, the Limerick woman has faced some huge hurdles in her lifetime. Her first pregnancy was found to be an ectopic pregnancy and, despite the fact that doctors were monitoring her closely during her next pregnancy, she developed complications at seven months.

Jean and her fiancé Paddy welcomed their little girl, Sloane, into the world last year but, sadly, she passed away just five days later. From there, Jean found herself falling into patterns of emotional eating and hoped that Operation Transformation would help her to transform her mind and body in the lead up to her wedding day.

In huge news, Jean had to step back from her OT journey two weeks ago as she announced that she was pregnant! However, she will absolutely be walking the catwalk for the finale tonight. 

According to Jean, this rollercoaster journey has been one of the toughest and most rewarding experiences she could have imagined but insists that everything happens for a reason.  

"Finding out I was pregnant in the middle of the show was a bit of a shocker but I do believe that things happen for a reason and now I have the whole country behind me," she laughed. "If good positive vibes can get you to an end line, I'm hoping that's working."

"I feel so much better in myself, in my mood, in my form. I'm back wearing colourful clothes, I do feel that I've got my body back," she said.

When it comes to her mental health, Jean insists that every aspect of the show was vital to her overall success. Exercise, diet, and learning to talk about her feelings were all part of the package.

"It's a mixture. I'm an outgoing person but I would have struggled a lot in the past when it came to going into crowds - I would get panicky and look for the nearest exit - but that's only happened maybe twice in the past two months which is super.

"I'll always have months or days where things won't be so rosy because that's not how it works but I think I've been given the tools to talk it out and realise that it's ok not to be ok.

"I don't think it's one thing though. If you don't sort out the whole wellbeing thing, it just won't work out."

In the past, women would generally avoid sharing news of their pregnancy until they had passed the twelve-week mark but, in recent years, this trend seems to be changing, according to individual preference. When it came to Jean's unique situation, she didn't have a huge amount of choice in the matter as the nation was watching her every move - something that she says she was very aware of.

"It was a big deal telling people that early, it's going against the norm to what a lot of people say but I have had everyone from a young person to a woman in her eighties telling me that they're going into a church to light a candle every day for me. It's beautiful, so lovely." 

"I think everyone can make their own choice [of when to announce their pregnancy]. If I got pregnant again I might not necessarily tell people straight away but maybe I would, it all depends on the person's headspace and how they feel but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

"If I only get a few weeks happiness, I want everyone to share in that happiness. I hope I get the whole bam-wham-kaboodle this time but, hopefully, by speaking out, people will talk more about their own experiences."

Since speaking about her own experience of loss, Jean says that a number of women have come forward to share their stories. In one case, Jean was the first person that a woman had ever told about her miscarriage.

"Imagine how alone she must have felt? I guarantee that once she told someone, they probably said 'that has happened to me' or 'I know someone that that's happened to'.

"Bad things have happened and I need to put a purpose to it so if the purpose is that other people now talk about it, that's great."

Don't miss the grand finale of Operation Transformation tonight on RTÉ One.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact; The Samaritans (phone 116123), or Pieta House (1800247247).

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