Roísín Murphy, the host of RTÉ's Home Rescue, has revealed that she will not be returning for the next season of the hit show.
Stepping in for Jennifer Zamparelli, Lottie Ryan caught up with the architect and presenter, who made the announcement for the first time on the show.
Due to return in the spring, Roisin revealed that this season of the show won'y feature her. "I had to step aside this year because I had a really tough last year. I lost my dad, I had a really sick kid. I'm so sorry, but at the same extent, my family really needed me.
"Home Rescue is still going on, Peter is still going on and the team will still go around and do the houses", she says. "I'm calling it a menopausal year or break, like maternity leave."
She stresses that she's not stepping completely away from work, however, and will still be making programmes. "I got grounded, Lottie! I got grounded by the family", she joked.
She also mentions she had previously taken time away from work to care for her family. "You think that that journey is over", she says. "But actually, I've got a kid doing the Leaving Cert as well, and my dad died. It was really strange, I thought, 'that's fine, he'd a great life', but actually you carry your journeys with you."
"Home Rescue's extremely intense", she adds. "The work that goes into it is incredible. It's a force of nature, and like that, I'm hoping I'll rejoin it at some stage."
"Stepping aside is something I thought I'd never get back. You know the way as women, you're told, 'okay, you've done that now. You're done, that's it, you've had the babies, you're off, career'. But really, you still have lots to offer.
"Because of the dreaded social media, you still stay connected, you're still involved in the world in a different way. It has brought us closer as well."
Roísín says she's a "real doer", so this phase can be challenging. "You achieve things by doing, so you'll be first round with a pot of tea and sandwiches. This year, no. There was no pots of tea, when one part of my life involves somebody falling off a bike and getting open-heart surgery, there is no escaping life. Life just throws things in front of people."
She adds that RTÉ tried to adapt the show to work with her, but it wasn't possible. "I just reckon this is part of the journey", she adds. "I can't go around the country for six months, I have to be with my kids at the moment. My kids and my family are everything to me."
Fans won't have to wait too long to hear from Roisin, however, as she's publishing a book in the new year. Two years in the works, she's committed to having it finished.
Lottie also caught up with her about the National Upcycle Challenge 2022, and why upcycling has never been as popular.
"I've always had a huge passion for upcycling and in terms of the last decade or so, upcycling has been this thing where you paint a piece of furniture and you bring it back into fashion", she says.
In recent years, however, she says thanks to the combination of Brexit, supply chain issues, Covid delays and the climate emergency, upcycling has been brought "from left field right into centre vision".
"If you aren't reusing, upcycling, you're paying through the nose for something or you're very lucky with building materials."
She adds that people in mainland Europe have been way ahead of us for years when it comes to upcycling, while trendy designer items are now looking more and more like upcycled works.
Junk Kouture, the fashion competition that challenges students to create a wearable work of art from junk, is also leading the charge when it comes to proving how versatile upcycling can be. Roísín says her own children took part in the competition.
"The circular economy is here to stay", she says. "That notion, that I would have grown up in, where we were all into this obsession with designer, that's definitely not there in the younger generation. They go to charity shops, they do not think, 'I'm going to go out and get the latest Louis Vuitton'. They don't even go in for the auld Yeezy thing!"
"You're really teaching people it's all within our own remit, we can survive and thrive in emergencies", she adds. "It's how humans have adapted for centuries and millennia, they adapt in crisis."
For more information about the National Upcycling Challenge 2022, visit mywaste.ie.
To listen back to the full interview, click above.
