‘It's been a difficult few months', says Joanna Donnelly as she opens up on life after shock RTE departure
OFF AIR 'It's been a difficult few months', says Joanna Donnelly as she opens up on life after shock RTE departure
JOANNA Donnelly has opened up on life since her shock departure from RTE, admitting it's "been a difficult few months".
The meteorologist announced her departure from the national broadcaster during her final forecast on RTE's Nine O'Clock News earlier this year.
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Met Eireann's Joanna Donnelly announced her departure from the broadcaster in April
Credit: Instagram
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The 54-year-old has opened up on life since stepping away from the role
Credit: instagram
The Dubliner had been broadcasting on RTE Radio 1 since February 2002.
The 54-year-old then cleared the air regarding her exit, adding: "This is not a decision I came to lightly by any means. It was a very, very hard decision to make."
The former Dancing With The Stars contestant confessed that she left the station as she felt it was the "right" move for herself and her family.
The TV star revealed that she would not be back on screens "for a while" and added: "I have to take some time and look after myself."
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Joanna has now spoken out about how life has been since stepping away from the role.
She told Evoke: "The last few months have been very difficult for me, and I've been concentrating on getting well and healing, so I haven't really had much energy to think about what I'm going to do next."
Reflecting on the challenges moving forward, she added: "I'm a middle-aged woman, and I'm only middle-aged if you count living to 110 [years old], so the world isn't screaming for us to apply for everything. It's a tricky one, but no, I hope I'm not on the scrap heap just yet."
When asked if she sees this time in her life as a setback or a new beginning, Joanna said: "I think if I didn't think that there was some hope or prospect or opportunity, then I wouldn't have done it.
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"I wouldn't have left the nice pensionable civil service job. I wouldn't have done that easily. I didn't do it easily. And yes, I'm absolutely excited to see what comes next."
And looking into the future, the presenter admitted it isn't easy to picture what's next after three decades in the same role.
Joanna Donnelly shows off new hair
She explained: "I mean, it was 30 years of me doing essentially the same job, now, different aspects in the same job. And, certainly in the last few years, with media experience, that's kind of changed the scope of my job somewhat.
"But still, you work yourself into a kind of, not a rut, but into a very small niche in a large market. It's hard to see what I want to do next. I don't really have a vision because I didn't really think about doing anything other than the job I was doing, because I loved the job I was doing, of course."
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After her departure from RTE in April, the mum-of-three escaped to the Netherlands, where her husband Harm Luijkx hails from.
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Joanna and her hubby brought their three kids Nicci, Tobias and Casper there to visit their grandparents.
The weather woman shared some snippets of her family holiday over on Instagram.
She joked that she was "running away" as she recorded a video of herself in Dublin Airport.
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Joanna checked back in after landing in the Netherlands and said: "I'm at Harm's parents' garden. There's water trickling.
"There's a bird singing and somewhere there's somebody chopping wood. The sun's shining. The tree house is beautiful. And breathe.'
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