Life has been a rollercoaster for 2FM broadcaster Carl Mullan and his wife Aisling in the last five years. Speaking to Janice Butler, the couple reflects on raising three kids under four, trying to make time for each other and the struggles and joys along the way.
The last five years for Carl Mullan and his wife Aisling have been, as they put it, a "complete whirlwind". The couple, who have known each other since childhood, have had three children in just over four years, bought a house and got married, all the while balancing Carl's growing media career as host of 2FM’s Breakfast Show with Aisling’s high-pressure job as a paediatric nurse.
They’re taking a few hours away from the madness of parenting for our shoot in Barberstown Castle in Co Kildare, a stone's throw from Aisling’s mother, who is minding the three children (Daibhí (4), Éala (2) and Béibhínn (7 months). "Once they’re fed and kept alive, I’m happy," laughs Aisling. "My mum’s a great help."
Carl is no stranger to being in front of the camera, but I wonder how Aisling is finding her moment in the spotlight. "I’m a little out of my comfort zone," she says. "I’m socially awkward on a good day, but it’s nice to do things together," she says, looking towards Carl.
While Aisling is whisked off for hair and make-up, Carl reflects on his career to date and how fatherhood has changed him, before Aisling rejoins us to talk about their new podcast, How Are Ya Lovie, a project they’ve started in a bid to "schedule more one-on-one time together."
Carl’s been up since 5am for his regular gig, the Breakfast show on 2FM. The show has gone through many changes in the last year, since the departure of his original co-hosts Doireann Garrihy and Donnacha O’Callaghan, but things have since settled, with Carl now co-hosting with Roz Purcell and Aisling Bonner.
After four years of breakfast radio with added young children, Carl is still trying to manage the early starts. "I don’t operate well with a lack of sleep, whereas Ash is unbelievable," he smiles. "Most of the time, if I’m tired getting up, it’s because I’ve stayed up too late, just trying to catch up with Ash and have some time to ourselves after the kids have gone to bed.
"But look, I’m not complaining because I have the privilege of getting more time with the kids than a lot of other working parents. I get home in the afternoon, and I have a lot of time with them, and I’m very conscious that a lot of people don’t get that," he adds.
What does he think about all the changes at 2FM in the last year or so?
"From my point of view, I was upset that two people I’d become very close to were leaving. Donnacha, Doireann and I had managed to land on something with that show that was very special. We enjoyed it so much. I was really worried at the time that with them leaving the show, it would be the end of our friendship, and that’s what upset me the most," he admits.
"But very quickly, I realised they’re not going anywhere and sure we’re in touch all the time. I can’t get rid of them," he laughs.
"It’s all settling in now, and with Roz [Purcell] and Aisling [Bonner], we’ve found our groove. It’s a different dynamic and new personalities, but that’s the thing I’m enjoying most about it.
"My worry was that I would be always comparing, but we get on so well; it’s different, but that’s OK, and it makes it exciting," he adds.
Carl grew up in Perrystown in south Dublin as the middle child with older and younger sisters. He knew Aisling from the area as they were growing up, but it wasn’t until they rekindled their friendship in their 20s that things became romantic. "I was mad about her since we were kids," he smiles.
Ahead of the Leaving Cert, Carl was all on for a career as a firefighter or pilot, but when it came to the crunch, he did a media degree in IT Tallaght. He was following in his father’s footsteps: Don Mullan is a well-known journalist and author (The Boy Who Wanted to Fly, The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings).
"My sisters are in creative roles too; Emma does video editing and Thérèse manages bands in London. She’s probably the coolest of the three of us," he laughs. "Mam and Dad were always so supportive with the three of us in whatever we wanted to do. We were really lucky in that way," he adds.
Carl jumped when an opportunity came up to be a reporter on the red carpet of the IFTA awards for Lyric fm in 2011, and he went for it. He admits to being so nervous that he asked Brenda Fricker about a movie she wasn’t in: "She could not have been nicer, she obviously realised this guy hasn’t a clue," he laughs.
From there, he went to RTÉjr Radio, 2XM and Pulse and then bounced around radio as a researcher for Ryan Tubridy and a call taker for Liveline. "It gave me a real grounding in the business," he says now.
"I always had a scratch I wanted to itch to be on air, but I almost felt if I said it out loud, people would think that I had this massive ego. Then one day, something clicked and I realised that no one cared about what I was doing. I was totally overthinking it. So, I started knocking on doors and asking the bosses in 2FM to meet for coffee."
He got his first chance on air on St Stephen’s Day in 2014 as holiday cover. There was a "technical issue" while he was on, with the result that he put the entire station off the air. "Another howler," he laughs.
"Thankfully, they told me it happens to everyone at least once." From there, he did Weekend Breakfast and did bits with Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene until the job on the Breakfast show came up.
"I don’t think I ever told this, but when the Breakfast show opportunity came up and I had put myself forward for it. I knew I needed to do something extra to stand out, I knew I needed to throw myself into it, so I sat down and recorded a video for the bosses in 2FM where I pitched myself. I remember hitting 'send’ and thinking that either sinks me or it's what gets me the job."
The gamble paid off, and he was announced in the line-up with Doireann and Donnacha in 2021.
"It’s been a big learning curve for me over the years, that idea that opportunity will come find you. It will not, you have to keep knocking at the doors," he reflects.
At home, things were just as busy. In 2020, Aisling and Carl settled into their own home in Dublin and got their beloved dog Angie. Later that year, Carl proposed, and in August 2021, they welcomed their first child, Daibhí. He was joined by Éala in the summer of 2023 and 18 months later, by Béibhínn in January of this year.
Carl says that after the arrival of Éala, he started to feel stressed, and Aisling spotted he wasn’t in a good place mentally and recommended he talk to someone. He found a therapist and continues to go every few weeks when things get on top of him.
"I was really struggling," he admits. "Ash said to me, ‘I think you need to offload with someone’. Small things were getting to me, and it was like I was going around in a constant state of fight or flight," he says.
"I meet with the therapist every six weeks to try and stay on top of things, and I’ve realised that I can get myself so busy with work and life that I need to give myself that moment to stop and check in with myself.
"For me, it’s that balance of getting enough time with the kids but also making the most of my career while things are going well, and that’s hard to do," he adds.
Therapy has helped the couple identify that he may have ADHD, and he’s getting tested for it later this year. It was, he says, a suggestion that didn’t surprise him. "I’m showing a lot of characteristics of ADHD, and I think it would make sense in how my brain works. I find it very hard to concentrate on one thing; I’m always bouncing from one thing to the next," he says.
Does he allow himself time to take in how much his life has changed, both personally and professionally? "That’s something I worry about sometimes. I worry that I’ll look back on this period of my life and wonder did I take it all in. Because it’s been such a whirlwind, but it’s been incredible," he reflects.
With that, Aisling joins us again, her hair in clips, outfits picked and make-up almost complete. The snippets of family life that Carl shares on social media and their new joint podcast How Are Ya Lovie underline what a good fit they are – she brings the "ogranisation that Carl needs" and they’re both very supportive of each other and their careers.
"People often ask how I do it all, and the answer is Ash. She’s the one that keeps everything together," says Carl.
"We’re very good at encouraging each other in our careers and also good at taking time to ourselves, whether that’s separately or as a couple. That’s something we’ve really focused on in the last two years," adds Aisling. "That enables us to come back into the unit and be better with each other. A lot of the opportunities he’s gotten have been once-in-a-lifetime stuff, so you’d have to encourage that," she adds.
Their new podcast is a window into their lives, the ups and downs of marriage and parenting and is extremely relatable.
"The idea for the podcast came about because we’re nearly at a stage where we have to schedule time together, to get proper time to catch up. Aisling always wanted to do a podcast, but the timing was never right, so we decided to just try it out," explains Carl.
"It’s the mundane stuff of married and family life. We wanted people to see that we’re struggling our way through it and figuring it out," says Aisling.
As a paediatric nurse, Aisling’s day job is very different to the work world that Carl inhabits, so how does she find dipping into it with the podcast?
"It’s given me a small glimpse into that world. When I’m at home with the kids, especially now on maternity leave, I say to Carl, you get to go into work and have a coffee in peace, kind of hinting that his job is easy. But after we did the first episode, I realised that you have to really be on for those 40 or 50 minutes of recording, and I was tired after that.
"So, I have a little bit more understanding that he does that live every morning for three hours," she laughs, as Carl looks delighted.
I ask Aisling how she reflects on the last five years. "It all just happened together and in a way that was probably a good thing. We didn’t have time to think about the changes that were happening," she admits.
"It’s given us more perspective as well, especially having the kids. It’s definitely made Carl more grounded," she laughs, "but I grew up with Carl, so I knew all along what he was capable of. It’s always been part of his personality," she says proudly.
What of the rumours of Carl looking for the Liveline gig?
"We did a joke video of a few of us auditioning for the job but of course, because there’s so much interest around who is going to replace Joe, people took it seriously, so I totally leaned into it as a joke," Carl explains.
"But down the line, that’s the type of show I’d see myself doing. I’d love to do it but right now I’m very happy where I am with 2FM and life; and just trying to take it all in."
How Are Ya Lovie is available where ever you get your podcasts.
