Yvonne: I lost my identity during my marriage
SHE was part of one of Ireland’s most famous couples but Yvonne Connolly has admitted she felt stifled and ‘lost her identity’ during her marriage to Ronan Keating.
The model and mother of three says she now wishes she hadn’t taken a back seat and had ‘more confidence in myself, as a mother and as a woman’.
It’s the first time Ms Connolly has spoken so openly about her 14-year marriage to Keating, which ended in 2011 after it emerged that he had an affair with backing dancer Francine Cornell. Her comments come as her ex is set to wed girlfriend Storm Uechtritz in a lavish ceremony in Scotland next week.
‘I turned down a
lot of work’
Speaking in the latest Image magazine after the couple’s divorce was finalised in April, Ms Connolly says of her role as a stay-at-home wife and mother during the marriage: ‘I made the decision not to work, to step away from the limelight when I had my first child. I turned down a lot of work during those years.
‘In hindsight, I feel I lost my identity as a woman, as an individual. I was very happy to take my husband’s name. We all think when we marry that it will last forever.
‘I do wish that I’d kept working, though, that I’d had more confidence in myself, as a mother a nd as a woman. I realise now my children would have been j ust as well brought up had I worked.’
Ronan and Storm are to marry in the plush h Archerfield House nearr Edinburgh next weekk where his son Jack, from his marriage to Yvonne, will be best man. Keating also has two daughters from his marriage to Yvonne, who is now enjoying success after carving out a career for herself. Ms Connolly, 41, tells Image that taking on projects such as RTÉ’s MasterChef ha have given her a new lease of life. And her children, Ja Jack, 16, Missy, 14, and Ali, ni nine, think she is a ‘more in interesting person’.
She says: ‘Since MasterChef, my life has comp pletely changed... I feel a great sense of achievement in that.
‘I never know what’s around the corner. There are quiet days, but then the phone will ring, a job will come in that interests me and everything changes. I’m at a really good stage in my life now.’
Connolly is dating cameraman John Conroy, but admitted to being nervous about looking for love. She says: ‘At first I was terrified of the idea of dating. I was never going to date again. I love being in a partnership where we both consider what each other does important.’