{"id":288558,"date":"2026-01-17T02:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/288558\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:56:16","slug":"inside-claire-byrnes-rarely-seen-family-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/288558\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Claire Byrne’s rarely-seen family life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just months after her landmark decision to leave RT\u00c9 for Newstalk<\/a>, Claire Byrne will be returning to the studios as she is set to sit down with Patrick Kielty on tonight\u2019s Late Late Show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Claire is known for her unshakeable interview style and heated discussions with major figures, she also lives a busy life as a wife and a mother of three young children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old veteran broadcaster prefers to keep her family life private, opting not to share photos of her children\u2019s faces online and rarely speaking about her marriage to Gerry Scollan.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire rarely speaks about her marriage to Gerry Scollan. Pic: Brian McEvoy<\/p>\n

It is not known how Claire and Gerry initially met, but the pair were first linked when she brought him along as her date to the VIP Style awards in 2012, where she had been nominated as the Most Stylish Woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking on the night, Claire said: \u2018Poor Gerry, he has to run the gauntlet tonight, I feel a bit sorry for him.\u2019 A source close to the broadcaster later told the Irish Daily Mail that she had \u2018agonised\u2019 over the decision to go public at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Claire and Gerry would get engaged just a year after their first appearance. Claire would tell the Irish Independent:<\/a> \u2018I didn\u2019t know straight away, but after the first date I did know \u2026 We had so many similarities in our background \u2013 size of family, rural upbringing, the values we were raised with.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

They tied the knot in a low-key ceremony at a Dublin Registry office in 2016, having their reception at Angler\u2019s Rest in Chapelizod. Claire remained coy about details of the wedding, keeping the date a secret from everyone but a handful of relatives and friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"They tied the knot in a low-key ceremony at a Dublin Registry office in 2016 Pic: Conor McCabe<\/p>\n

The pair now live a busy life between Claire\u2019s latest radio show starting in February, Gerry\u2019s career at Microsoft and raising their three young children, Patrick, Jane and Emma.<\/p>\n

The family also has a golden Labrador named Cooper. The family\u2019s dog recently went viral<\/a> after Claire shared a clip of him being hoovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Under the Grill podcast, Claire stressed that despite her monumental success as a radio presenter, she is really just a \u2018mum\u2019. <\/p>\n

She also revealed that her children don\u2019t really care about her career. \u2018They care that you are at home when they need you. And that they get fed! They care that you are at home when they need you,\u2019 she told the podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire stressed that despite her monumental success as a radio presenter, she is really just a \u2018mum\u2019. Pic: Andres Poveda<\/p>\n

Claire also revealed that her decision to move back to Newstalk from RT\u00c9 was made so she could spend more time with her children. \u2018My children accept that I am gone every morning before they wake up. But my youngest never accepted that I had to walk back out the door on a Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018She cried every time I left the house on a Monday. Every time. It broke my heart. She is five years old, and she is starting school next week,\u2019 she told the Sunday Independent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Claire will be making her return to the RT\u00c9 studios tonight as she joins Patrick Kielty on the Late Late Show.<\/a> She will be joining a heavy female lineup, with Anne with an E actress Amybeth McNulty and The O.C star Mischa Barton also set for tonight\u2019s show.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just months after her landmark decision to leave RT\u00c9 for Newstalk, Claire Byrne will be returning to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-288558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115908194079041760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288558","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=288558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}