Ever since childhood, Roz Purcell has found solace in nature, a connection explored in her new book on hiking. Donal O'Donoghue meets her to talk about the call of the wild, overcoming an eating disorder and how a brush with death has shaped her life.
"What I was trying to say was that we were hoping to get married as soon as possible because I have lots of older relatives," says Roz Purcell of her recent Late Late Show appearance in which fellow guests, funnymen Brendan O’Carroll and Jason Byrne, added two and two and got shotgun wedding.
Cue arched eyebrow from host Patrick Kielty as Roz blushed furiously at the interpretation of her recent engagement to boyfriend, Zach Desmond, and their plans for the nuptials.
"Our plan was to get married so that Mame (her Auntie Mary) could be at the wedding, but she sadly passed away a few weeks ago. She was a huge part of our childhood [Roz has two older sisters] and was like a second mum to us. It was Auntie Mame who instilled my love of baking and it was she who kept us busy and entertained as children. And yes, Mame, will get a big mention at the wedding."
When we meet, Roz has company, her rescue pooch, Myla, who with her other "baby", Wilko, features in her new book, The Hike Life. This handsome publication (with photos by Purcell and others), shortlisted for an Irish Book Award, details her 50 favourite hikes in the 32 counties. It had been in the making for a couple of years.
"There was a time last year when I banned Emma (Power, her 2FM co-host) from asking me how it was going," she says. "It wasn’t just sitting down to write about the walks; there was also the physical element of driving up and down the country to do all the hikes again." (It took four trips to Errigal to nail a sunset shot).
"One time I was at home in Tipperary with my parents, when I got up at 3am to hike Coumshingaun for sunrise and then at 5pm headed over to Knockmealdown for a night climb," she recalls. "I’m not an emotional person but I cried when I finally had a copy of the book in my hands."
Roz Purcell grew up on a farm in Tipperary, under the shadow of Slievenamon. "We were up the mountain a lot," she says of those early days with sisters, Rachel and Rebecca ("We’re like the Kardashians with the names!").
"In truth, it was just a way of getting out of doing work as our parents kept us very busy on the farm. My parents used to make me sweep the yard in the autumn and even then, I’m thinking 'Why? It will be full of leaves again in no time!’ When Mum and Dad were out of the house, having left us with a list of things to do, we’d watch Big Brother on TV and as soon as we’d hear them return, we’d dash back to work.
"Often, we’d say ‘We’re going up the mountains for a walk’, often to talk teenage woes, break-ups with boyfriends and the rest. Looking back, I can see now that I leaned into nature to process things. And while I don’t see hiking as therapy, it certainly calms me."
Purcell’s childhood in the vastness of rural Tipperary – the nearest shop was some six miles away – was shaped by the closeness of family (her grandparents lived next door). "Our parents brought us up to be very independent. As soon as we started going to school, it was ‘There’s your stuff, make your own lunch.’"
Her mother was the school principal. "I didn’t call her Mum," says Roz. "I called her Miss Purcell. I reckon it was harder for her than me because every day I’d be like (she whispers) ‘I forgot my lunch!’. I wasn’t good in school, and she was probably thinking 'that’s not my daughter'. I was so wild, very tomboyish. On April Fool’s, I got everyone to hide on her so that when the bell rang it was like a ghost town. She said, ‘Everyone back into class!’ and they all did, except me. I stayed hiding in her car and she just left me there. A few hours later, I slunk back into class."
In her late teens, Roz started a career as a model. Later she would chronicle how the demands of the catwalk resulted in her eating disorders. "It was only when I started modelling in my late teens and early 20s that I really struggled with my body," she says.
"I was in an industry that wants you to be smaller all the time and that was so hard. But as a teenager, while I was aware that the media was celebrating the smaller body, I didn’t hate myself. If someone had said to me then about eating disorders, I’d be like, that could never happen to me, thinking ‘Why would you want to ruin your life in that way just to fit that so-called ideal?’ But then it got me. Now I know that it can hit anyone at any age, that you can have difficult times accepting your body. Maybe society is getting a bit better, but so many of us would have grown up thinking that if we don’t fit a particular body-type we’re not right."
In the past, Purcell has also spoken of her anxiety, describing herself as a people pleaser, easily knocked back. "It is not severe," she says now, "but I do go through moments of stress and that is dependent on how much I’ve signed up for. Even now, before I go to bed, I write lists of things to do the following day. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t get done."
Therapy sessions helped her cope. "I go back now and again to counselling when I feel the need to talk about something. My only flaw is that I probably go when it’s got a bit too bad. It’s just to talk things through and it gives me clarity on matters that seem huge in my head. It also gives me these little tools to cope. Once, therapist said to me that when you find your head going ‘RARARA!’ and overthinking to the worst-case scenario, just say aloud the colour of whatever you see in front of yourself and that helps to stop the thoughts."
Such anxiety is perhaps a legacy of a traumatic accident. "I was in a really bad car crash when I was 21 and I didn’t drive until I was 29," she says. "I was a passenger with Rachel when the car got stuck under a lorry on a motorway slip road. We were spat out from under the lorry and while the car was a complete write-off, we were fine. It was the first time in my life that I felt vulnerable, and in that moment, I really thought I was going to die.
"For years afterwards, I was freaked about driving and now, as I’m saying this, it probably explains why I have an immense fear of any type of transport. Getting on a plane, I think that it’s going to crash and when I’m on a train, I’m thinking ‘Didn’t a train come off the tracks somewhere in the world recently?’ I never had that before the accident. I finally learned to drive in my late 20s and bought a car with the best safety rating."
In 2016, her sister Rachel, who was also in that car smash, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). "I’ll never forget that day Rachel came home from the doctors," says Roz. "We had both gone for a blood test – I’m a bit of a hypochondriac – and that evening the doctor rang Rachel, telling her to come in the next day and check her body for lumps. We had just come back from holidays and thought it was just a bite or a minor infection but the following day, she comes home, bawling crying, saying that she had leukaemia.
"It was such a huge shock but we’re so grateful to that doctor who spotted the signs so quickly and the treatment was so efficient. It’s a long-term illness that’s incurable at this time but it’s also manageable and Rachel recently went into remission so that was so good to hear."
Roz first met her fiancé, Zach Desmond (son of MCD owner, Denis) over seven years ago, a blind date organised by a mutual friend. "Now all he wants to do is plan hiking holidays," she says, adding, with a laugh, how she finally broke him down (he proposed on the Cliffs of Moher).
Going back to that Late Late mix-up, would she and Zach like to have family some day? "For a long time, I thought that there was no way I’d have children but now I’m back and forth. Sometimes I think I’m too selfish and just want to travel the world. Then at other times, especially since the passing of my aunt, I’m thinking that having a family would be so nice. Right now, there are no plans. I look at my two little doggies as two children. They go everywhere with me."
With that, as if sussing the conversation, Myla stretches, lets out a little bark and moves towards the door, ready for road again. Just like her owner.
The Hike Life by Rozanna Purcell is published by Black and White Publishing.
