Una Healy lifted the lid on how getting death threats when she was bullied as a child and going through a painful divorce made her the woman she is today.
The past few years have been bumpy for the Tipperary singer, following her split from Ben Foden.
In February 2019, the rugby star told the Guardian he had cheated on her during their marriage in 2015, while she was pregnant with Tadhg.
Two years on, Healy, 39, is back living in her home town of Thurles, after a decade in the UK.
And whilst she said she is “at peace”, Una admitted she wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone.
She added: “That’s the way I feel. It is not something I would ever have wanted to happen, but I had to go through it.
“So, I wouldn’t want it to happen, but I wouldn’t take it back either because I wouldn’t have my children.”
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, the star added: “I am not alone in this situation I’ve been through. It happens all the time.
“In the UK, the divorce rate is 50%. So, I am not alone. I think it is hard for everyone. I don’t regret anything, but it is really tough.”
The single mum – who has son Tadhg, six, and nine-year-old daughter Aoife Belle – said she still believes in love but like many others, she told how lockdown put a stop to her dating life.
She added: “It has been very hard for anyone that is single during Covid.
"It is just the worst time to be single because there are no opportunities to meet people.”
Reflecting on her healing process and how song writing helps her process emotions in difficult times, the former Saturday’s star also opened up about being bullied and getting death threats as a teenager.
She said: “They’d shout intimidating things and make me feel scared.
“There was a couple of times when they said, ‘We’re going to beat you up after school’. Just threatening things like that. But they were empty threats in the end.
Scared
“Nothing ever happened, but I would literally walk into school every morning worried and so scared that it might happen. I was really scared.
“My dad was a doctor in the town, so they managed to get the private phone number at home and a couple of times they rang the house. They would say things like, ‘I hope your house burns down’.
“My sister got that call one night. I was at my uncle Declan’s gig with my parents, and my sister was on her own at home.
“She said that they rang and said, ‘I hope the house burns down and I hope you die.’
“To be honest, I feel it toughened me up as well. In a way, I am glad those kind of things happened to me in life at a young age. I nearly left the school. But I didn’t give in to it.”
Una said she holds no grudge about the experience and told how it taught her to stand up for herself.
She added: “I wasn’t one to just take anything that anyone said to me.”
