The former Miss Universe opens up about wedding ‘decision fatigue’ and her struggles with eating disorders and alopecia
Trump, though, somewhat typically, made a slightly backhanded remark. “He was like, you don’t look Irish. And I was offended because Irish women are beautiful”, Purcell recalls. The attention got her noticed by the worldwide TV audience, and the other contestants. “It was the moment everyone in the competition turned against me.”
Purcell nodded and smiled through Trump’s remarks but secretly she had a mission: to get to the bottom of Trump’s vertiginous hairdo. “The thing I remember is people asking me, is it a toupee or not? And so while he was saying ‘great golf courses in Ireland’ I was having a look.” Her verdict? “Not a toupee, a really good comb-over.”
A decade-and-a-half later, Trump is American history’s most controversial president, and the Miss Universe competition is in trouble. Warrants have been issued for the arrests of the current owners of the competition with Raúl Rocha Cantú, one of the co-owners, under investigation for drug, gun and fuel trafficking.
This followed drama earlier this month when Fátima Bosch, who would be the eventual winner, was described as “dumb” by the pageant’s director, who subsequently made a tearful apology.
Purcell says the competition may be “losing touch”, but she doesn’t think even the current scandals will spell its demise. Even now, she can holiday in Thailand, the Philippines or Latin America and “someone will come up and say, ‘oh my God, Miss Ireland 2010’. It still has such a cult following and I don’t think we in Ireland see that”.
If the competition that made her famous is under fire, Purcell has gone from strength to strength in the years since she competed. She co-presents 2FM Breakfast and in December will co-host a show at the National Concert Hall, in which the music from the programme will be played by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
“Garron Noone will perform Fairytale of New York, and he has such a fantastic voice. There will also be segments where we interact with the audience and get people up onstage. It’s giving Toy Show.”
Most of my bald patches have been on the back of my head, so I can always get hair extensions
Purcell is also building up to her wedding to Zach Desmond, which will take place in Galway. It will be a relatively small one, with about 60 guests, and she describes it as “more of a party”.
The hardest part of the preparation, she says, has been “decision fatigue” about which makeup artist to use, and which dress and shoes to wear.
There’s also the worry of her alopecia flaring up in the run-up to the day. “Along with everything else, my hair sometimes decides to fall out randomly, and there is nothing I can do about it because it’s an autoimmune condition.
Roz Purcell. Photo: Sean Cahill
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“I’m trying to stay positive and remind myself that if I do get a bald patch most of my bald patches have been on the back of my head, and I can always get hair extensions. The bald patches can be quite big, I had one before and I could cover it until the wind blew… I’ll just have to roll with it and accept that it is out of my control.”
Purcell also opened up about her own battles with an eating disorder while she was in the modelling industry.
“I went through bulimia and orthorexia… I just normalised my behaviour and I was in an industry that normalised it. Modelling has become much more diverse but back then it was very one-dimensional. Hearing people speak about mental illness, whether it was an eating disorder or OCD, made me think I have something like that.”
2FM presenters Emma Power and Roz Purcell. Photo: Marc O’Sullivan
Eating disorders are sometimes treated using a model similar to addiction recovery, but whereas a drug addict or alcoholic can give up those substances, someone with an eating disorder must forge a new relationship with food. Was this difficult for her?
“It was hard, it still is hard”, she says. “I go through periods where I’m fine and then I go through periods when life might be more stressful and then I need to try to manage it and understand that I can’t go back there because my life was so different when I had an eating disorder.
“Relationships wouldn’t work and I was just a really sad person. My relationship to food is my relationship to everything else. It was like I was living with someone else. There was a voice in my head and it constantly berated me.
“It constantly told me I was too big. It constantly told me that I couldn’t enjoy something or if I did I had to be punished. I used to scratch myself really badly just to not hear that voice any more. I was lucky I managed to have a career during that time, but behind closed doors I was falling apart.”
I remember one photocall when I had a little pot belly from binging and someone asked if I was pregnant
Her weight fluctuated as she binged and purged and public scrutiny made everything more difficult. “I remember one photocall when I had a little pot belly from binging and someone asked if I was pregnant.” Eating disorders do, she says “come under a type of mental illness and I think it is important that people come out and tell their experiences.”
It’s the dark side of human nature to try to look for signs of imperfection in the most beautiful people, but Purcell comes across warmer and more genuine than the vast majority of celebrities.
She’ll spend this Christmas in Mexico with Zach, where they’ll attend a Bad Bunny concert and she will shield herself from the sun, which she says is the cornerstone of her skincare. “I’ve never had Botox, I’m slightly afraid that if I start doing stuff to my face, I’ll look like the cat lady. I have bad dermatitis, but I just stay out of the sun always.”
And genes surely play a part. “When people see my Mam they’re like, ‘oh my God, her skin’, so maybe I get it from her.”
RTÉ 2FM Late Breakfast Live with RTÉ Concert Orchestra takes place in the Helix on December 9 at 8pm. Tickets available www.rte.ie/co
If you are affected by the issues raised in this article, contact the Bodywhys national helpline on 01 2107906 or email alex@bodywhys.ie