She's been providing some golden Ireland AM moments at home with her children during lockdown, but now that Karen Koster is back in the studio, life is returning to normal. She tells Janice Butler why the breakfast show is the perfect job for her at this stage in her life and why she has no regrets about her choices.
Organising interviews when you have kids at home can be difficult: whatever time you pick, you can be sure they’re bound to kick off just when you need them to co-operate. Thankfully, Karen Koster, TV presenter and mother of three, is well aware of this and when we arrange a time to chat, she very honestly says; "I’ll be home with my noisy kids so there’s no good time but I’ll do my best to string a sentence together."
Ever the professional, she does a lot more than that and we have a lengthy catch-up on these crazy times.
A constant presence on Irish TV for over 15 years, Karen has a reputation in the business for her down-to-earth, hardworking manner and even during lockdown, she managed to deliver some seriously entertaining and relatable Zoom spots at home with her three kids, Finn (5), JJ (4) and Eve (2) for Ireland AM.
"I would just stick on the computer and go with it and I think that added to it because it was very natural. Apart from having a bit of make-up on and the house semi-tidy, I didn't mask what it’s like in our house – which is complete chaos."
Karen has come full circle in her career. Having started on Ireland AM straight out of college, the Dublin native cut her teeth on the breakfast show before landing what she says was her 'dream job’ on Xposé in 2007, where she stayed until going back to Ireland AM to cover maternity leave for Ciara Doherty last year.
Meanwhile, Xposé was cancelled and Karen has remained as one of the Ireland AM family. She admits that she’s enjoying being part of the team a lot more now than when she had to fill Ciara’s shoes, which she says was a challenge.
"When they first got me in to cover Ciara’s job as the anchor, that was hard; you really had to be on top of news, reading all your newspapers and I was getting up at 4.20am and after a few weeks of it, I thought I can’t do this anymore, I’m going to have to throw in the towel and walk away.
"I could not survive those early starts with three young kids in the house. Eve hadn’t even turned one at that stage. I would be dizzy going to collect the kids at the end of the day."
Nonetheless, she persevered and she’s glad she did: now that Ciara is back, she feels the pressure is manageable.
"I knew it was just a maternity cover and that once Ciara was back I could go back to Xposé, but then that was cancelled so I knew I’d have to make it work. But when Ciara came back, it was much easier for me. It was almost like I could stop trying to be like she was; she’s so good at her job and she’s naturally a news junkie whereas I wasn’t. I was probably trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The job was getting the best of me to be honest and I was horrible then at home with the kids."
She admits that since getting married (to businessman John Maguire in 2013) and with three children, her interests naturally began to change – what used to excite her; red-carpet and beauty events, were replaced by stories on parenthood and being a working mother, which we saw in her brilliant documentary Mammy Guilt in 2018, which provoked a huge response from parents having similar experiences.
So while Xposé was her dream job at one point, she admits that as she got older, it became more difficult to balance motherhood and travelling to interview movie stars.
"I absolutely adored that job. But it got complicated once the kids came along and there was the travel involved for interviews and premiers. So to be honest, the shine sort of went off it in the last couple of years as the kids started to arrive and I found it really hard getting away, logistics wise," she says. "It was definitely the job for me in my 20s."
Was she sad to see the show get the chop last year, after so long on air?
"In a way, I felt less attached to it because I had my own maternity leave and then I was filling in on Ireland AM, so it was kind of a long goodbye for me. It was probably easier for me because I had just been watching it as a viewer and not a host."
She doesn’t worry too much anymore about the direction in which her career is going, admitting that it "probably turned out better than I thought it was going to be," she laughs. While many TV presenters dream of the big TV jobs in the UK or the US, this was never an ambition of Karen’s.
"This is as good as I’d ever wished for. I never had my eye on a prize of working in London, I always wanted to do well in Ireland and get to be on TV. If it ended tomorrow, I would say that I had a fantastic run of it. I’m very lucky to have been able to have a family in conjunction with my career. I didn’t have to sacrifice one for the other. I’m very happy with my lot.
"You can’t have it all, all the time. If I had gone to the States or London I probably wouldn’t have had children. There were certain things that I knew I needed in my life. I’m very happy with the career I’ve had."
She pauses for a moment and we laugh that it sounds like she's retiring. "I don’t mean to sound egotistical at all – I just mean I’ve done as well as I would have hoped," she says.
Recently, Karen has been trying to find the positives from the experience of lockdown; more focused time with the kids, memories caught on camera and even seeing her family more, either on video calls or doing drive-bys when that’s all that was allowed. She credits her husband John for keeping an upbeat mood in the house when things got difficult and for being her rock.
"There were times I just had to leave the house. It would be over stupid things or it would simply be tiredness from getting up so early in the morning or maybe one of the kids were up during the night. But a couple of times, I just had to go out for a walk or on my bike on my own," she admits. "John is super positive. He’s the man you want around when the world is crashing down around you. I’m a bit more dramatic."
For now, Karen is back in the Ireland AM studio and very happy to be there, so no more chaotic home videos. "I’m glad we’ve kept the show on the road – it’s business as usual," she says.
Would she like to make more documentaries?
"To be honest, at the minute I’m just trying to get through the weeks and making sure everyone is fed."
We have managed to chat for almost an hour with no interruptions from the kids, I tell her; definitely a win in my books.
