Ryan Tubridy admits he was a ‘shambles’ when he turned 40 and revealed he is already preparing for his 50th so he embraces it better.
The RTE star, 48, made the admission whilst speaking to Irish singer Annmarie Cullen on his RTE Radio 1 show this morning.
In a conversation about the stigma of asking somebody their age, he said: “I thought asking someone's age was considered once upon a time, forbidden and you wouldn’t and shouldn’t.
“And it would appear that it is still quite a question not to be asking..I mean it’s one thing to say.. There are more personal questions, shall we say.
“But no, I think some people are quite prickly, and I say that for male and females, about giving away their age.
“So some things don’t change.”
However, having no problem talking about his own, the Late Late Show presenter admitted he did have a hiccup when he turned 40.
“I had a shambles about turning 40, but as I am 48 now, and heading towards 50, I am fully intent on embracing it in a much more organised way.”
Ryan and his radio team marked his 40th at the time with a special party in Dublin’s 37 Dawson Street, alongside 300 of his listeners, who were also reaching the milestone age.
Speaking at the event in 2013, he joked: “We are all ancient, but let's be ancient together.”
Meanwhile, responding to a listener who texted into the show saying ‘50 is the new 30’, he said: “Well I’ve been saying for some time now how particularly people in their 80s and 90s simply aren’t what they were when I was younger in their 80s and 90s.
“And age and chronology and all of that has changed dramatically thanks to science and modern medicine and so long.
“So you could be right that 50 is the [new 30]."
The Dubliner also opened up about his time in the Gaeltacht as a teen as he revealed he went back to find the house he stayed in and met his old bean an tí.
He said: “Ciaran Beag was the area in Cheathrú Rua where I would have stayed.
"Actually, I went not too long ago. A couple of summers ago I went back to find the house I stayed in the summer of 1987 I think.
"I found the house, I couldn't believe it and the bean an tí, the same woman was still there and I said to her, 'You might not know me but I remember you,' and she said, 'What the hell are you doing here?'
"And I said, 'I'm here to see you because I remember the really, really fresh sliced pan at the end of the night and big pots of tea and butter and jam.
"'To me, that was a banquette it might as well have been in Bunratty Castle with Henry the 8th eating a pigs head it was so delicious'".
Ryan also told how the experience instilled a new love of food in him, after growing up as a ‘picky eater’.
He said: "I would have been picky enough but the Gaeltacht food instilled in me a love of all things Irish.
"You'll take what you're given and you can eat it or you can get out and starve.
"We did things we never thought we would do.”
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