‘It was coming, he wants his life back’ – clues were there that Ryan Tubridy was going to walk away

Pressure of fronting such a high-profile gig may have been deciding factor in decision to quit

Ryan Tubridy is quitting as The Late Late Show host after 14 years. Photo: Andres Poveda

Gay Byrne presented The Late Late Show for decades but still found time to do other projects after he finished

Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, who now must begin the search for his successor. Photo: Colin Keegan

Ryan Tubridy is quitting as The Late Late Show host after 14 years. Photo: Andres Poveda

Gay Byrne presented The Late Late Show for decades but still found time to do other projects after he finished

Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, who now must begin the search for his successor. Photo: Colin Keegan

Ryan Tubridy is quitting as The Late Late Show host after 14 years. Photo: Andres Poveda

Melanie Finn and Kirsty Blake Knox

March 17 2023 02:30 AM

It was the calm before the storm on a quiet Thursday morning. A slow news day ahead of a bumper bank holiday weekend, with St Patrick’s Day celebrations combined with Ireland’s rugby team eye-balling a Grand Slam winning triumph against England tomorrow.

Then, just before 11am, RTÉ dropped the bombshell that its golden boy Ryan Tubridy (49) was quitting The Late Late Show after 14 years at the helm.

Talking with him shortly after his big announcement, Claire Byrne expressed surprise when the news came in and remarked that “nobody had seen it coming”.

In fact, it had been rumoured in RTÉ circles for several months that he may be considering stepping back from the most plum gig on Irish TV.

Just two weeks ago, he shot down reports that he would be stepping back from the show, opting to share his decision in a more considered fashion.

However, there have been some hints that Tubridy was thinking of passing the baton on. He will turn 50 this May, and last year he told the Sunday Independent that approaching the milestone birthday was encouraging him to reflect upon his life, and consider how much longer he wanted to remain as host.

Tubridy said the pandemic encouraged him to reassess his priorities and that he didn’t want to regret giving over too much of his life to RTÉ. This is something his predecessor, the late great Gay Byrne spoke about.

In his 80s, Byrne said he wished he had spent more time with his family, and less time inside the TV and radio studios.

Gay Byrne presented The Late Late Show for decades but still found time to do other projects after he finished

“I don’t want to be older and burned out,” said Tubridy. “I want to be older and excited still.”

One RTÉ insider said he is “very well got with everyone in RTÉ, but he wants his life back”.

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Another said: “Reading between the lines, it’s been some time coming. He was presenting the show for 14 years – those are pretty good innings. It’s the most demanding show on Irish TV. It takes a lot out of a person and you need to know when to step away.”

Listeners to his RTÉ radio show speculated a certain weariness may have set in when it came to the pressure of fronting the high-profile gig.

In an era of toxic negativity on social media, particularly for those in the public eye, he deleted his Twitter account in 2011 and even ditched his smartphone for a while. As he said himself, he is a “private person in a public job”.

Being known as the best-paid presenter in RTÉ, with his 2021 salary listed as €440,000, also comes with a certain level of high expectations.

One slight misstep on his TV or radio show brings an instant onslaught of negative comments.

As a TV personality, being instantly recognisable for the best part of nearly 20 years in a country as small as Ireland comes with some downsides.

Last year he was verbally abused by two men as he walked with his family in Dún Laoghaire. On a separate occasion a group of schoolchildren filmed him shouting abuse.

He told the Sunday Independent moving away from the spotlight of TV would come as a relief. “Once you are off the TV, you are off the radar and you become – I hope – this loveable relic,” said Tubridy.

A father of two adult daughters, that pressure also extends to his inner circle. It’s been years since he was publicly linked with anyone romantically and he prefers not to discuss his personal life in media interviews.

“When you’re The Late Late Show presenter, you belong to a lot of people and that means whether it’s on the street or at home or in a pub or a coffee shop or whatever. And that’s part of the joys of it, when you’re the guy,” he said.

Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, who now must begin the search for his successor. Photo: Colin Keegan

“When you’re the family of that person, they didn’t buy into that and it’s always a little trickier for them.”

He will front his final Late Late Show on Friday, May 26, the same weekend that will see him turn 50.

“There’s probably something in that. So I will never present the LLS in my 50s. To go back to the party metaphor, I’ve always believed go to the party a little early and get out a little early,” he told Claire Byrne.

For a career that began when Tubridy was the tender age of 16, as a book reviewer on children’s show Scratch Saturday, he has nothing left to prove, but there’s little doubt he has plenty more ambition in him for fresh challenges.

As he said himself, he’s “done as much as I can with the show.”

Reacting to the news, Tubridy’s predecessor Pat Kenny spoke about the “repetition” that can set in when anchoring the slot.

And just like Gaybo, Tubridy is probably keen to get his weekends back after 14 years of intense, live TV as he enters a new chapter in his life.

“I could give you 50 reasons why I’m leaving. But the one I can give you, that is the most prosaic and the most soulful is, you know when you know. And I know in my heart and it’s time,” he said.