Lucy Kennedy <\/a>and opens up about fame, burnout, and the mercurial temperament that defined his younger years.<\/p>\nHe also speaks movingly about the death of his brother, Conor, and his own near-drowning after diving into the surf on a Kerry beach during the filming of a show.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all on camera,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI went into those waves \u2013 I love all that \u2013 and your man had put down his camera and got in the water because he was amazed at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI discovered I couldn\u2019t get back, and it was wild. He shouted at me, \u2018Are you okay?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI put my hand up like that [for] help,\u201d Gavin says, adding that the cameraman thought he was giving a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he continued drying himself as he was walking away. He said, \u2018swim sideways\u2019. That was all I needed. I had a bit of strength left for a few strokes, and I was carried in. Otherwise…\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he was thinking, he paused before saying: \u201cIsn\u2019t this silly? Isn\u2019t this silly?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS385493310.jpg\")
Lucy moves in with Diarmuid and his wife Justine Keane at their stunning Wicklow home, uncovering the personal stories behind one of Irelands most recognisable faces.<\/p>\n
In the show, the Chelsea Show winner admits he didn\u2019t enjoy school. \u201cI would have been regarded as conventionally dim; people didn\u2019t think I had intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool didn\u2019t suit me, exams didn\u2019t suit me. I had a belief in myself, so I didn\u2019t really care \u2013 but certainly, nothing was expected of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of five children, Gavin recalls how his family\u2019s lives were shattered by the sudden loss of his brother Conor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an accident when we were going to school one day \u2013 I was there,\u201d he says quietly. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to grow up with grief, and such extreme grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to talk about it because Conor did live, and by all accounts, he was a little boy, a little brat, getting up to all sorts of tricks and no good. But he did live, and he was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he grew up receiving a \u201chuge amount of love\u201d from his parents, but the tragedy coloured everything. Childhood was not great for me. I didn\u2019t enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody worried for me, how I was affected by it. And I wasn\u2019t in a creative environment. I was in a studious, hard-working environment, so I didn\u2019t fit, maybe at home, maybe in school. So it was all a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Virgin Media series, he pays tribute to his \u201camazing parents\u201d for carrying on through unimaginable grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum is made of incredibly strong stuff, sometimes to her detriment. But dad\u2026 it was very tough. It was very tough on us all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS385493306.jpg\")
Lucy moves in with Diarmuid and his wife Justine Keane at their stunning Wicklow home, uncovering the personal stories behind one of Irelands most recognisable faces.<\/p>\n
And he lights up when he talks about his late father\u2019s joy in his success. \u201cHe revelled in it,\u201d Gavin smiles.<\/p>\n
The designer recalls visiting his father in his final days in Tallaght Hospital. \u201cThe nurse pointed to me and asked, \u2018Who is that?\u2019 Dad said, \u2018our brightest star\u2019,\u201d he says, visibly moved.<\/p>\n
His parents, he adds, were \u201camazed\u201d he found his way. \u201cThey came everywhere, and all the parties \u2013 they were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding his way also involved meeting his wife, Justine Keane, the daughter of the late journalist, Terry Keane, while he was working in her garden.<\/p>\n
He remembers Terry with great affection. \u201cShe was utterly brilliant,\u201d he says. \u201cShe was Terry Keane. She was a well-known journalist and gossip columnist, and fashion writer. But I tell you, she wasn\u2019t only that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS385493315.jpg\")
Living with Lucy continues this Sunday on Virgin Media Television with a revealing and heartfelt third episode <\/p>\n
Behind the glamour, he says, there was a deep humanity. \u201cShe rang me one day and said, \u2018I\u2019m worried\u2026 I\u2019m on my own and I think someone is living in the shed.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a friend went over to check it out, they did find signs of a homeless person living in the building. \u201cSean said, \u2018Do you want me to put locks on it?\u2019 She said, \u2018No \u2013 if he needs the shed, he needs the shed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDown to Dunnes and she says, \u2018Now, what was the newspaper I saw in there\u2026 that was the Telegraph, I think he\u2019ll eat tuna\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was unreal \u2013 naughty, brilliant, dangerous, mad, creative,\u201d Gavin laughs. \u201cI was digging the garden once, and Buzz Aldrin, the man who\u2019d been on the moon, walked past, coming to dinner. It was everybody. The parties were wild \u2013 the most fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mother-in-law thought it was \u201chilarious\u201d when he became a household name in England.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne particular week, I had three different series in the top 10 on television, and I turned on the radio, and even before the news headlines, it was me on Radio 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard my voice, and then I had a news story, because I had a row.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going back to his mother-in-law\u2019s house that Saturday, she opened the door. \u201cShe looked at me and said, \u2018Ah, the brat\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a frank admission, he also tells Kennedy that his creativity was coupled with volatile outbursts in the past. It\u2019s not pretty, and it\u2019s very cutting and very cruel. I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to have minders, RTE would have to send executives to stand beside me. When I went to an awards show, somebody very high in the organisation was put beside me because my reputation was bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always came from somewhere, always for a reason, and that\u2019s all years ago\u201d, he says, adding he regrets those outbursts, \u201cYeah, because never good to be unkind to anybody, but my life wasn\u2019t exactly stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gavin says he and his wife, Justine, have followed in her mother\u2019s footsteps, opening their home to people in need \u2013 including a young Croatian man who lived with them for a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustine came from a family who always did that,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have a big house, the only value it has is being a good neighbour, being a good parent, and sharing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, he says he loves getting older: \u201cI love the fact that I don\u2019t give a f**k anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living with Lucy S7 with Diarmuid Gavin \u2013 airs tonight at 9pm on Virgin Media Play & Virgin Media One.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <\/strong>Sign up here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wicklow-born designer\u2019s relationship with the nature-loving monarch goes back more than a decade, when he was appointed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[30653,18,117,19,17,66452,86731],"class_list":{"0":"post-146993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-diarmuid-gavin","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-lucy-kennedy","14":"tag-virgin-media-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115443386547951990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_JS385493304.jpg\")
Living with Lucy continues this Sunday on Virgin Media Television with a revealing and heartfelt third episode featuring celebrity garden designer and television personality Diarmuid Gavin. <\/p>\n