The Hot Press interview with Danielle Meagher

My interview with reality TV star, clinician and businesswoman, Danielle Meagher – dubbed ‘Doctor Botox’ by the redtops – doesn’t exactly get off to the greatest of starts.

Following considerable schedule-juggling at both ends, we eventually arranged to meet in Buswell’s Hotel at lunchtime on Good Friday. I was waiting there when she rang from a private number. There was a painter in Derma Face – her private Botox clinic situated just off Fitzwilliam Square ­– and she was running a little late. When I suggested that I go there, she shot me down: Botox outlets are something akin to STD clinics in terms of their need for privacy. Indeed Meagher was made acutely aware of this when she was fined €7,500 for breach of confidentiality in the Circuit Court last year after a loose-lipped receptionist told people the details of a fellow guest’s Botox treatment at a party.
“Could you meet me in Larry Murphy’s instead?” she asked, in her distinctively Southside Dublin accent. “It’s just 100 yards past the Shelbourne, on the left. I can be there in five minutes.”
Unfortunately, Larry Murphy's is a pub, and, being Good Friday, the place was shuttered closed. No sign of Danielle, either.
So there I was, kicking my heels outside a closed public house for the best part of 15 minutes, looking like Dublin’s most desperate alcoholic, and cursing the fact I didn't have her number. Eventually she rang again. “Hi Olaf, where are you?” she asked, sounding a little breathless. “I’m here,” I replied. “At the front.”
“Oh right, I came in the side door,” she said. “I can’t see you anywhere.”
Side door? Wondering had I missed something, I took a peek around the corner. Nope. The side door was closed and shuttered, too. “Emm… it’s Good Friday, Danielle,” I said. “The pub is shut. I’m actually standing outside the front. On the street.”
There was a moment’s silence before she said, “Oh…. lookit, I’ll come out for you.” Two minutes later, I spotted the petite blonde walking briskly down the road towards me. Must have been the side door of a different Larry Murphy’s…
No worries. Cloak and dagger bit over, it quickly transpired that Meagher could talk the hind legs off a donkey. In the time it took us to find a suitable alternative venue to do the interview, she had told me about the problems with tabloid photographers outside her clinic, the horrific details of a rickshaw accident she’d had in Dublin late last year and the fact that she had made an official complaint to the Gardai following an altercation with her TV3 co-star Virginia Macari. To add to the intrigue, it was incorrectly suggested in The Phantom column in Hot Press recently that Danielle was in the company of Virginia Macari, sipping champagne, at the opening party for the newly refurbished Morrison Hotel – a suggestion which upset her gravely.
Meagher first began appearing in the Irish society pages as a “celebrity dentist” five or six years ago, just as the Celtic Tiger was entering its death throes. More recently she came to wider public attention via TV3’s car-crash reality show Dublin Wives (originally Dublin Housewives until America’s NBC, which owns The Real Housewives franchise, objected).
Although not married or in a relationship, Meagher is the mother of a 10-year-old son and is thus deemed to qualify for the series. Indeed the marital status of the individuals seems not to matter – which would clearly be a good thing if it weren’t for the name. Who cares? The series follows the lives of five women – Meagher, Macari, Jo Jordan, Lisa Murphy and Roz Flanagan – introducing viewers to their supposedly enviable lifestyles, families and homes. The second series aired last year and attracted a weekly audience of more than 260,000.
We eventually found a quiet Insomnia off Baggot Street, where Meagher insisted on paying for the coffees.

OLAF TYARANSEN: What’s your earliest memory?
DR. DANIELLE MEAGHER: Probably learning how to play Gin Rummy with my granddad Collins. I was very close to my grandparents. My granny Dolores is my biggest fan. Her and my auntie Anne, they’re all very good to me. What I do workwise, there’s a certain element, obviously of my being in the public eye, although I absolutely don’t do any of this celebrity business at all. I don’t buy into it one bit. I’m a clinician, an academic. I don’t go to the opening of anything. I’ve no interest in attending any launches in this country, whatsoever.
You’re very adamant you are not interested in launches.
The only thing I’ve gone out to recently was the launch of Walk In My Shoes, which is a suicide charity I feel very strongly about. I do think that the young people of Ireland are the future and they need to be minded. It’s tough going for them. And I think also there’s an element of people not necessarily getting the coping skills growing up. That makes a big difference. I’m a really positive person. I’m probably a good role model. Which is why I don’t want to be seen as a person who goes around drinking bubbly. I can’t stand the taste of Champagne. I like to exercise and feel well. So certainly swanning around like a celebrity in Dublin with a load of fuckwits just doesn’t appeal to me, and I’m not afraid to say it. I know it will rub some people up, but whatever. The only things I’ve gone to recently were, as I've said, the launch of Walk In My Shoes and this other thing, which I have to namedrop because it’s a cool one. After the Olympic ceremony I went to dinner in George Michael’s house. That was a really cool thing to do, but I was still home at 3 o’clock.
Was George Michael there?
Yeah. It was in his house in Hampstead Heath. It was really cool. I don’t know George Michael at all. But my agent had looked after him for years – I’m signed to Curtis Brown in London – and he continues to look after lots of really good people. I presume he took me there to say, “We’d like to have you.” As they said in Jerry Maguire, “Sure, he had me at hello.” I knew he was the one for me.
Curtis Brown is a literary agency. Have you written a book?
It’s got a big TV presenting department. If you go to the Curtis Brown website, you can see that I’m represented, and signed to the ‘expert presenting’ department.
What TV shows have you in mind?
We did a pilot last summer. We’ll see if that’ll get picked up. And there are another one or two things. At the end of the day, TV presenting doesn’t pay the bills. So my clinical work is what I love doing. I love my patients, I love my team. I was in there at 9am this morning, Good Friday, giving Easter eggs to everyone. I seem to pick people who are quite like me, maybe younger versions that I can sort of mentor. I like to think “what can I give?” not just “what can I get?” As you get older you become a bit more philanthropic, you know that way? At the same time, cross me and you’re fucking dead! (laughs)
What sort of upbringing did you have?
Typically middle-class. Two brothers, no sister. I’d love to have had a sister. But I love my brothers. I went to Mount Anville, as we all know, and studied okay at school. I kind of came into my own at 16 or 17 – a total geek, to be honest with you. When I look back at pictures I’m like (waggles fingers and adopts American accent) “nerd, loser.” I think it’s a clear message to young girls to get your head in the books. I would hate to be bankrolled.
How do you mean?
I’ve no respect for women who’ve been bankrolled by men at all. And even if people ask now would I get married, I don’t think so. Maybe in ten years or something. Why would I, though, when there’s nothing I can’t do for myself? I think some people get married because they feel like they have to be with someone, whereas I’m very independent. Even if I got married, we’d have to have two separate houses like Helena Bonham Carter. I really couldn’t do it. And I think the key is everyday to get the head in the books and study hard. But, even with Derma Face, to roll out that business model now is difficult because I kind of am the brand, and I wouldn’t let anybody else near my patients. So what’ll happen this year is there will be umbrella brands rolled out under it, probably Skincare. There may be an element of the Derma Slim concept that will come to realisation, and other umbrella brands.
How’s the Botox business doing nowadays?
It’s actually really good. I think a lot of the surgical companies are suffering with the recession. People don’t have eight or ten grand. Whereas they can still afford the €500 or the €1,000 for a bit of filler or the Botox. It’s interesting times. I love business. So I’ll sit in the clinic, depending on the time of year, but I’ll always do a big Tuesday, a big Thursday, Wednesday lunchtime, Friday lunchtime and, if it gets busy, sometimes we’ll have to do a Saturday as well. That’s the easy bit. It’s the running of the business, the PR, the management of the brand. It’s also protecting the brand because I aggressively do that. And I make no bones about it. Derma Face is my baby, and we’re very fair and square. We’re a very good clean brand, and if anybody comes trying to knock us, they’ll get a really big knock back. Even with anything in the press.
How do you mean?
Like, there’s the odd rugby player I’m caught with. I’ll hold my hand up and go, “Yeah, fine, whatever,” and it is what it is (shrugs). But I think it’s very important when you’ve built something and worked very hard for it… It’s not just the last six years of the business, it’s the six years of studying in Trinity doing dentistry, it’s the two years doing a Masters in aesthetic medicine. It’s all been building up to this. And this year – I know it’s 2013. But I feel it’s a very, very lucky year for me.
What’s happening?
Some TV execs are flying to Dublin about something really, really big next week. You know when you can feel it and you can smell it? Does that make sense? I can just smell it. And before I do those big things later on in the year, I’ll have teed up Diary of a Botox Bitch, which is like a female Ross O’Carroll Kelly. It is quite funny because my character in Housewives is just bold one-liners, dead-pan face: it’s a little bit of me, it’s not totally me. Diary of a Botox Bitch is kind of similar. But then, obviously, if I’m doing more stuff in the UK in terms of expert presenting, there’ll be nutritional books, there’ll be anti-ageing books. God, if I could get away with a perfume – Smell Younger – I would. And that’s where Curtis Brown comes in, in terms of revenue streams and rolling out merchandise as well.
Did you have a very religious upbringing?
Oh god, no!! (laughs).
Do you believe in God?
Whenever anything happens, I’ll be the first to go in and light candles. I went to Catholic school. I know the church has had a very bad rap recently. Yet there’s good and bad in everything. A lot of people have lost faith in religion. I certainly wouldn’t go to mass. I was always more a candle-lighter than a mass-goer. I believe in trying to be good and kind. It doesn’t always work out that way in business because if anybody threatens your brand, or does anything, you become like mammy bear and baby bear. I bite back hard!! I think businesswomen scare people. But be scared, be very scared, be afraid! I think Irish guys, too, have a problem with successful women. That’s fine because I’ve no intention of being with an Irishman.
What age were you when you had your first drink?
Around 15, 16, 17. I don’t even remember. I was never really a big drinker. Even now I can’t stand the taste of wine, I don’t like champagne. I’m embarrassed by the Irish culture. I spent the last two weekends in France. It’s so much more healthy. They’ll have an aperitif, they’ll have a digestif.
Why are you embarrassed by the Irish culture?
I think there’s a really big problem with drink. Even the rise in suicide – it’s pandemic at the moment. And drinking culture is not helping. I think the last time I had a drink was my birthday last year. It’s not that I’m holier-than-thou. I just have no interest in drinking. I certainly have no interest in having a hangover. And it’s really good, because everybody else is on the tear, wallowing in their sorrows – and there’s no time like the present to get good deals, good leases, and be in business. I’m having the time of my life. I’m up at 7am on a Monday, hustling. I love it. I don’t like seeing loose people, and if I do go on a night out I’d have to head off at about 11 or 12 because people just get messy. It’s a pity because we’re such a country of poets, scholars and writers. But the drinking is out of control.
Have you ever experimented with drugs?
God, no!!! (outraged) Are you having a laugh? I actually find it really insulting that you’d ask me that. I’m a clinician. I’m on the register. You can’t ask me that!
It’s a standard question in a Hot Press interview.
OK. Well, here’s my take on drugs in this town. People would seem to be under the impression that using cocaine along with alcohol is an acceptable social thing. Here’s the reality, and I say this from someone who has treated people who’ve come into A&E and even tried to steal syringes. Anyone who does cocaine or smokes marijuana is a junkie in my eyes. People have this idea that it’s just individuals who inject heroin. No, no! If you do any drugs, you’re a junkie! People think that cocaine is in this quality-controlled environment with everyone wearing white wellies. Well, it’s not! It’s gone from some absolute scangery banger in Colombia all the way across Europe through about ten different scangery bangers. And then, finally, when everyone’s had their cut and dirtied it up and whatever, it lands here. And if somebody was to serve you a ham and cheese sandwich made with really crappy ham and crappy cheese and mayonnaise mixed with rat poison and they were to serve it to you on bread that was brought into the country through someone’s anus, and served it to you on a loo seat – would you eat it? I don’t think so. So I don’t get people in this country thinking that cocaine is all very cool.
What age were you when you lost your virginity?
Oh god. I’m going to look like a total nerd now. 19, I’d say. “Loser!” I’ve only had eight boyfriends in my life, and one fireman, but that was when I was 22.
A fireman?
That was the only one-night-stand in my whole life. And actually he probably would’ve been happy to be my boyfriend. I didn’t want to go there.. I’m waiting for The Notebook story. I want the big one, and I don’t want any of the bullshit in between. I don’t see the point. I’m busy. I don’t need to be distracted by a man. And I’m not ready to meet someone now, I’ve just got so much going on. And I know that my man is not an Irishman. He’s either French or I’d have to import one from London or Wales or somewhere. Do you know that way? I know for a fact that he’s not Irish. I don’t like the Irish mammy's boys. I don’t like the drinking. People drink Thursday, Friday, Saturday. You probably have a few drinks yourself, and you’re thinking, “who’s this holier-than-thou?” It doesn’t interest me.
I do enjoy a few drinks. I take drugs, too, but I wouldn’t consider myself a junkie.
All those things? (aghast). But… you’re a journalist. You’re allowed to do all that. It’s fine (laughs).
What kind of music are you into?
I love music. If I’m in on a Saturday doing paperwork I could suddenly find myself a couple of hours later messing around on Traktor for a while. I like hip-hop and r ‘n’ b and all that. I just downloaded Blue because I’ve been watching the Big Reunion on the TV –“cringe” – but I can sing ‘One Love’ from start to finish! I don’t go to gigs much. I’m kind of high maintenance. I’d want to go to a nice concert. I went to Oxegen a few years ago and I was just like allergic. That’s not my scene at all. People like Beyonce, I go to London to see them in concert and it’s kind of cool. I Shazam everything. Remixes and everything. So I’ve got decks in the basement. With my clinic there’s the whole clinical side and then there’s the other half which is all… It’s kitted out now for Flip The Bird Independent TV Productions, because if you’re going to sell your soul to reality TV, which obviously I have, it’s good to do what I do. When it comes to round two or a similar thing, you want to be able to exec produce. Not to have control because when you do reality TV, you do wear your heart on your sleeve. I’ve said all along that I’ve no skeletons in my closet, I’ve nothing to hide. But you want to have a big fee for it. It’s one thing to do Housewives and do it for €1,000.
Was that your payment for the entire series?
Yeah. I think we’re getting paid by TV3 this week. Steve McCormack is my producer and he’s a really great guy. So I’m actually going to give mine to the Walk In My Shoes charity because I feel strongly about it. I’ve lost two people to suicide. I think that this country cutting down mental health nursing is an absolute disgrace.
Do you have any interest in politics?
The government is a complete mess. They’re all overweight politicians waiting for their paycheque and their pension. And the reality is that, if you’re going to have people running the country, you need positive people. Like, I get up in the morning and go to the gym. I’m a real 'glass is half-full' type. You need people who are inspirational, who are going to drive this country forward out of the mess it’s in, not people who are off having big, boozy, two-hour lunches and getting even fatter. I look at the politicians and the state of them, the hack of them. You know when they were told to dress better, we tried to get them to all have Botox and stuff just to dickie themselves up. But honestly – the state of them!. Michael Collins is my great-granduncle and there’s political pedigree there, and a fight and a fieriness, but everyone knows about that.
Would you consider running for election?
I wouldn’t rule it out. I’d like to be President someday. Maybe a non-diplomatic President is what this country needs. I’d certainly cause ructions in the Dáil. I would eat them up and chew them out! I’ve no issue spitting out 40 year-old men ‑ it’s one of my favourite things to do, because I come across them in business a lot. And they never see me coming. They think “little blonde.” And since this is a Hot Press interview, and it’s quite rock ‘n’ roll, I don’t mind saying: I might have a gutter mouth on me at times when it comes to business deals. I’d certainly be well able to take on the best. And I wouldn’t mind who it was. They’ve all had a dose: the tax consultant, the accountants. Then again I’m fair and square. You know, I’d imagine I’m fun to work for because no matter what happens I’m always positive, and funny as well. If you don’t laugh, sure what’s the point of anything? I know for Housewives, the TV gold definitely came down to me. Like I say to everyone, “You’re either TV gold or you’re
TV fold!”
So how do you rate your Dublin Wives co-stars?
Lisa [Murphy] is completely boring to watch – probably not a bad heart but with an accent like that, totally affected. How can you take somebody seriously? And you know the one thing people always say is that Lisa wouldn’t hurt a fly. Now people think I eat glass for breakfast, I don’t, and it wasn’t pleasant doing that show. But you’d nearly prefer somebody who gets on the bandwagon and joins in than somebody who’s just insipidly doing nothing.
How about Roz?
I think Roz is grand. She’s probably my favourite out of them all, or probably the one I least dislike – maybe that’s more fair. But I did feel that her coming out and talking about her experience [of childhood sexual abuse] was brave. The message should not be, “be strong, you’re going to be okay.” The message should be: make a clear and concise report to the authorities and have the perpetrator removed from accessing other children. And we still don’t know who it was in her case. Are they still alive? Are they still doing it to other children? Even at the end saying, “If you’ve been affected by these issues,” I thought it was a bit way out there.
People might have thought you were close to Jo...
Jo Jordan, you know I fell in love with. I never care where anyone is from, I only care where they’re going. But, like, I’m done. I’ve no interest now, we’ve nothing in common. If they do another series – now Jeff Ford is in instead of Ben Frow at TV3 – I can’t see TV3’s lawyers, obviously in light of the fact of the Virginia thing, necessarily inviting her back. She’s come out and said she doesn’t want to do it again. I will not work with Virginia Macari again. The others are fine: I’m not really that pushed either way. Because I’m not bankrolled by a man. I have my businesses, I have other brands that I’m running out this year. I’m signed to Curtis Brown in London. And the UK TV market interests me far more, because there’s no money here.
What was your big ambition growing-up?
What did I want to be? I liked boats a lot. I actually have a degree in aeronautical engineering as well. I realized very quickly that it’s hard to be a little blonde with blue eyes in engineering. In my year, there were only two girls. I like boats and sailing. I’ve sailed across the Atlantic and done cool stuff. I probably didn’t know what I wanted to do. And that’s OK. I think it’s really important to tell teenagers that you don’t always know what you’re doing. This idea of filling out your CAO form at 17 and mapping out your whole life is total bullshit. In other countries they do nice basic degrees. Then they go on and specialize. So there probably should be a message to young people: you don’t need to know what you want to do at 17.
What was your first taste of fame?
Do you think I’m famous? I don’t. I don’t buy into that. And I haven’t changed a bit. I know one of the girls said, “Oh, I’m famous and I love it!" Are we famous from doing that show? I don’t think so.
You have just signed to Curtis Brown…
Of course. But I don’t go swanning around to celebrity parties. I don’t buy into any of that bullshit. I’m at home with my family with no boots and no make-up. Certainly I’ll write books, and have books published, and certainly I’ll do more TV work.

What kind of books?
I’ll do an anti-ageing one. That’ll be really easy to do. I’ll bash it out (mimes typing). And then Diary of a Botox Bitch is funny as hell because it’s based on a character called Michelle Carr - which obviously rhymes with Danielle Meagher - so it’s behind the scenes, everything from me going to a conference a couple of years ago and I had rented a car to go see a French rugby player I was seeing at the time. And I got caught speeding. I didn’t get in trouble or whatever. But I was speaking French to them and they thought it was brilliant. It was funny, you know? And then it also talks about behind the scenes of Housewives, so it’ll be very funny. It’s like a female Ross O’Carroll Kelly.
Is this a book or a TV series?
Both. Diary of a Botox Bitch will sort of be a reality show around me. And there’s no mad rush because there’s bigger stuff coming up in the UK this summer and in early autumn. The timing will be to do with them. I’ll have a few little teasers done and available for people to see. It’s the same concept: funny one-liners, dead-pan face, don’t really care what anybody thinks. I remember my brother saying to me that it would be worth doing, “but sure you’d be judged for a life-time". You can only be judged if you care what people think, and genuinely I don’t care. Especially in this country. It’s definitely the land of the begrudgers. Unbelievably so.
Do you consider yourself a feminist?
I hadn’t realised I was until I did the show. I definitely am, aren’t I? Would you say that
I am?
I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.
I’d say I probably have a bigger set of kahunas on me than most boys. On one of the radio shows, I said that at some stage I must be really naughty and say that next week is housewives week off, no ironing – and I don’t mean ‘no ironing’, as in leave a double load for the next time! And I think that’s the reason I’m not married. I can’t cook because my greatest fear is that I’d wake up and realise that I’d been cooking for some fella for ten years. I always try to get boyfriends who can cook.
You have a 10-year-old son. Were you in a long-term relationship with his father?
Yeah. Six years. And that’s all I’m saying on that. And it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Having a son was the making of me. Recently in the Sunday Independent, they asked me who was the love of my life, and I said, “he knows who he is.” And God help the future daughter in-law. I’d be scared. I’d be afraid. Although sometimes I think that my love for him would be so much that I’d actually behave myself and be good. But everything I do, I do it for him. And we’re pretty inseparable. I don’t get babysitters or anything like that.
What age are you again?
I’m 34. I always say I’m 31, but I’m 34. I always say, “Botox age or birth cert age?” I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I go to the gym a lot, so I’m lucky. I think that I get away with looking younger sometimes. I’ve no make-up on today.
Do you think it’s important for women to look younger than they are?
They can look whatever way they want (shrugs). See everybody has this idea, and it’s a real kind of parochial, past its sell-by date concept journalists have. They’re like, “Everyone who gets Botox should be judged”. It’s not that big a deal! It’s like 50 units twice a year, and it keeps the wrinkles away. Get over it, suck it up! If people don’t want to have it done, that’s fine. If people do want to have it done, then go somewhere safe, with standards and clinical excellence. Not to some beauty salon where Doctor Kazakhstan flies in once a month, when he’s been struck off in Spain, Italy and Portugal for using Korean ‘tox. Use your head. I’m not a big advocate for having lots of work done. Sometimes less is more.
Do you use Botox?
I have Botox twice a year. Probably for about the last four or five years. And I have filler in my lips. But actually, once you get your lips done once or twice, that’s enough. You don’t want these big balloon lips. I think it looks ridiculous. And someone even asked me if I’d done work on the girls on the show. And my answer was, “I’m good at what I do, but I’m not a fucking miracle worker!” (laughs).
Are you active on social media?
I sort of go in and out of it. Twitter is funny. I set it up about six months ago and I sort of go through fits and starts. And to me Facebook filled its capacity about a year ago and I sort of lost interest. I’m very private when it comes to my family. I’ve probably opened up more to you than I do with most people. I’m very cloak and dagger. So there’s no pictures up of family members, no pictures of minors up. People wouldn’t even know who my parents are. I intend to keep it that way. And there are some legal instruments in place to protect minors within my family as well so that people can’t write about them. And to be honest, if I have friends I want to be able to ring them and talk to them, I don’t want to be Facebooking. And this business of ‘Love you babe, see you later, great to see you’, like – come on! Twitter is good for the brand, and we need to make a resolution this year to get busy on Facebook and Twitter. But again, Botox is a prescription-only medicine so it’s really important that you’re not seen to be advertising it.
You first came to public attention a few years ago as a “celebrity dentist.” How did that come about?
I’ve no idea. Now they call me Dr. Botox, or whatever. You’re a journo. I can’t control what journalists say. You can hope and pray but, like, whatever. I don’t know. Celebrity dentist is just embarrassing. Celebrity anything is embarrassing. You’ve been with me 40 minutes. You get what I’m about probably; I don’t buy into the celebrity thing. I cringe. There’s 300 loose fuckwits fanning around Dublin at the opening of every single envelope. Like scarlet. If they paid me an appearance fee, I wouldn’t go. I’d be at home in bed, getting an early night, reading a book. I think the only real celebrities are rock stars, pop stars, actors. I’ve done a year of reality TV. Although I ended up being really funny on it. I do think I was good, because I was so honest in it. But most celebrities are fur coat and no knickers, they haven’t got a penny to their name. I’m sure you know from interviewing them.
Some do, some don’t…
The Big Reunion, that’s quite sad. You know, you’ve got all these bands like Atomic Kitten, Blue – and they made 200 grand and then the record company made 80 million. You don’t want to be the guy making the 200 grand. You want to be the guy making the 80 million. You need to have your wits about you and not get carried away with any of that bullshit – and
I don’t.
Is money really important to you?
Yeah, money is important. And security. I’m a single mum. I don’t throw money around. I don’t spend money on nights out. I wouldn’t be like, “let’s order loads of vodka!” You know what always annoys me? When I go out for a meal with friends for an afternoon, we might have a really nice dinner. I have no problem splitting the bill, even if I don’t have dessert or a starter. But you know when a bill comes in and there’s €200 on alcohol. Most people are actually quite cool and they go, “lookit, you don’t drink so it’s fine.” I would never bring it up. I’m not tight at all. I’m the last of the big spenders when it comes to looking after my friends. But why should I have to put €60 towards alcohol, when I don’t even drink?
When was the last time you were drunk?
It wouldn’t take a lot to get me drunk. I’m a cheap date. Like two glasses of Pinot Grigio mixed with lemonade or 7-Up and I’d be flying. The last year-and-a-half I can’t think of any time where I’ve been drunk, really. I’m just not into it. I feel like I’ve been born in the wrong country. I should have been born in France. You know there’s nothing worse then seeing girls at two in the morning falling around with their skirts up their gunthers. It’s just cringe, you know. Not cool.
You’ve spoken about bullying and suicide. But a lot of cyber-bullying is to do with making young girls feel that they’re not pretty enough, or their bodies aren’t good enough. How do you fit selling Botox treatments into that?
Well…I don’t think it fits into it because we don’t treat young girls.
What’s the youngest age you treat?
30, 32. We don’t see any young girls in our clinic. I don’t have any interactions with them. We don’t push the Botox. If you look in the mirror and you frown and you see wrinkles and they annoy you, come to a safe clinic and get it done. Otherwise leave it. I’m not going around trying to get everyone to get Botox. It’s a very niche, boutiquey sort of market – so I don’t come across many young women.
What ages are most of the clients?
The patients are 30 to 50 – we’re just literally Botox and fillers. We don’t do the faffy stuff, the peels and that sort of thing. So I couldn’t comment. When it comes to cyber-bullying, everyone talks about adolescent bullying. Certainly I think we need to equip young people in Ireland with coping skills. Bad things happen to good people all the time. If you have coping skills dealing with things is easier. I also think that adult bullying is a problem as well, and I don’t just mean just in the work place.
The word is that you won’t be working with Virginia Macari again…
I won’t work with her again. And if TV3 or Straywave (production company) want to go ahead with Dublin Wives without me, that’s absolutely fine. There’s no way I am going to ever work with her again. I mean, in a way, you could take it as a compliment – if they’re all completely jealous of my independence, my education, you know the fact that I’ve worked hard and everything I have is due to me. OK, I’m here with no make-up on, and in a puffy jacket. But, I mean, I scrub-up grand. So you know if people are jealous of you then that’s fine. On the show there was a big chat about did I ever call Jo the k-n-a-c-k-e-r word and I still to this day can’t say it because it’s not a word I would use. But Virgina Macari is not someone I'd work with again. Simple as that.
What’s the worst thing the papers have written about you?
That’s a good one. Sometimes you have a freak-out and then afterwards you go, “you know what, it doesn’t matter!” Boys is one thing that I don’t mind, but any boys they would link me to is because I don’t really care about them. If I’m actually genuinely mad about someone, the last people to know would be the press. So they’ve written that I was with Andy Powell, you know, a French rugby player: it’s a little bit of fun, they’re just a bit of arm candy, to be honest. Now in a recent article, they said, “What’s your favourite accessory?” And I was like, “Oh, a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes or a six-foot-four non-Irish international rugby player.” I’m a brat. I know I am. I think it would take a certain type of man to get me to behave. I’m a real handful!
When was the last time you cried?
Oh, more often than you think. I don’t often let people see me cry. I read a story the day before yesterday on the front of the Mail. It was this guy's 18th birthday, he was a bit autistic. He had set up a birthday party, and no one came and he went out and brought some random people back. I think he had been in care and he brought some people back and – apparently he was gay, and they had written ‘gayboy’ on his forehand, and then someone doused him in tanning oil and they actually set fire to him. That breaks my heart.
Did he survive?
No, he didn’t (Stephen Simpson, RIP - OT). I am not joking, the bullying thing does my head in! I felt that I got bullied on the show. But look, yeah, I can deal with that. But if I can feel bullied, God help your average bunch because I do eat glass for breakfast. And that upset me, not just because of my own thing, it just upset me. I think England is nice. I wouldn’t mind living in London, a week on/week off. Their social standards are different to ours. What people are accessing on the internet here, I would hope is different.
Surely the same material is available everywhere?
Yeah, I know, but teenagers in England are looking at all sorts of stuff. When you say to me about Irish teenagers having threesomes I’m like, Jesus, really are we at that place? I always hoped that Ireland has a sort of innocence about it. I wouldn’t go to bed with someone unless I am in a relationship, to be honest, because I want to mind myself, I want to feel good about myself, I want to have self-respect. What’s your proudest moment?
I think it’s yet to come. .
What’s been the lowest point?
It was when my grandad died. I was really upset. I don’t know. I really am a glass half-full person. I had that rickshaw accident last October. Did you see the pictures in the Sunday World? My face was mashed… (Takes out phone to show me pics – ouch! - and goes into a lengthy description of the crash and subsequent medical treatment).
Do you have a motto in life?
Yeah. Always paddle your own canoe.

Walk In My Shoes Day will take place on April 12. See walkinmyshoes.ie for more information.