However, as RTE’s top earner, bagging nearly half a million euro a year for his hosting duties, he believes people would be shocked to learn how ‘ordinary’ a life he leads.
“Despite what people think about the life I may or may not lead, your experience of life doesn’t change because you’re the host of a chat show.
“I understand all that but I think people would be pleasantly surprised by the life I lead and how ordinary it is in many respects.”
He says he treasures the simple things in life - his daughters Julia, 22, and Ella, 16, as well as his books, the trips to Connemara and pints with his family.
But the self-confessed ‘show-off’ and lover of attention says he’s hopeful to stay in the top gig within the public broadcaster for as long as possible, despite the rumblings of a female presenter coming to take over the reins eventually.
He said: “I want to be here for as long as they will have me, but I don’t doubt that it is only a matter of time.”
Meanwhile, keeping tight-lipped about any leading lady in his dating life, the host teased: “It remains the great unanswered question because I just don’t do that.
“I open the gate a bit into my life but not the front door. You can only give away so much because you have to protect yourself.”
