The comedian and presenter sadly lost his mum Mary earlier this year and over the summer announced his split from his wife, Cat Deeley
Patrick Kielty says he “100%” feels a sense of community between him and the Late Late Show audience.
The TV presenter has endured a difficult year following the passing of his mum Mary and his high-profile split from wife Cat Deeley.
On both occasions, he thanked the Late Late audience for their support and kindness and says it feels good to have that relationship with viewers.
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Patrick told RSVP Magazine: “From the get go with this show, the amount of people who have been in my corner and the goodwill that has come my way, there is definitely no other show in the world like it in terms of the relationship that you and your audience have with each other.
“People are very protective of the show. There is lots of goodwill towards me. But people will tell me what they like and what they don’t like. That’s when you know there is a sense of community around it, when people talk to you the way family would.
“People will say to me, ‘Paddy, you’re doing very well – I didn’t like that, but I thought this was good’. Honest discourse is always good.”
The Late Late Toy Show airs later this week and, for Patrick, this marks the beginning of Christmas.
He said: “To be honest I am delighted the Toy Show is back airing in December. Sticking the tree up in November always felt a wee bit early. I can definitely now sign up to it being Christmas time and decorating the tree when the Toy Show rolls around.”
The Co Down comedian is gearing up to host his third Toy Show and can’t believe how quickly time is flying.
“It very much feels like yesterday I was running around RTÉ and people were very nervously asking me how I felt hosting my first one,” the Dundrum man said.
“What I didn’t realise was that they were nervous about me messing up the Toy Show [laughs]. It feels like a long time since that first one, but it also feels like yesterday.”
Thankfully, the pressure and nerves as host of the most watched TV show of the year has eased up as the years have gone on.
Patrick said: “The thing I always find is, when you’ve got kids yourself, you know how ideas can go right or wrong when kids get together.
“I’ve been on enough sides of football and GAA pitches to know that you can plan as much as you want, but these things will go their own way!
“I never really put that pressure on myself. For me, the key was to always get brilliant kids – and there’s never a shortage of those – and then some fun toys, and put it together.
“You can do a running order and think you know where it’s going, but it very rarely does.”
A lot of people work hard to bring the Toy Show to life and Patrick is involved in the creative process.
He said: “The brilliant thing is we have a team who have worked on this show for many years and know what items work and what potentially doesn’t.
“What’s lovely about it is that they involve me in the process.
“The production team will make the decision on who is on the show – I host the show, I don’t produce it. But it’s very much collaborative.
“Whenever they find someone who is a bit special and tell me, ‘you need to see this,’ it’s exciting. The Toy Show team even has their own office with a lock on the door in RTÉ.”
Sons Milo and James love watching their dad on the Toy Show and always chance their arm to get information out of him.
“They think they can catch me out now and have started working as a team,” Patrick said with a laugh.
“I had a prosthetics fitting a couple of weeks ago, I told them and they immediately asked if it was for the Toy Show.
“I then realised even telling them that was probably too much. They veer from being impressed to wanting to know more, which is always dangerous.”
Patrick likes to watch the show back with his sons after it airs on the Friday night.
“I like to watch it with them,” he said.
“Last year I got a kick out of seeing their faces watching me dressed as Kevin from Home Alone. I think that’s the plan again for this year, we’ll see.”
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