Podcaster Laurita Blewitt revealed she and her now husband GAA legend pundit Joe Brolly personally invited her cousin US president Joe Biden to their wedding - but he had to decline.
The Mayo native, who married barrister Brolly in an intimate ceremony at the Ice House Hotel in Ballina last month, says it may have been for the best in hindsight - admitting it would have been ‘a nightmare’ trying to organise security if he did come for the big day.
She told the Irish Daily Mirror: “Well if the president of America was at the wedding it would have been a quiet one with security and secret service and all of that. It would have been a nightmare.
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“We were both with him for St. Patrick’s Day at the White House, so of course we invited him personally and the invitation followed up.
“It turned out he had covid anyway, so he wouldn’t have been able to come but he thought it would have been ridiculous for him to come. It would have been too much security detail and all the rest of it.
Laurita, 38, who is a third cousin of the president, added: “And planning a wedding is hard enough, without having to plan it for the president to join you. It would have been a nightmare.”
Blewitt, who is one-third of the Tommy & Hector Podcast with Laurita Blewitt, said the day went off without a hitch, and admitted the post wedding blues have hit.
"It's hard to believe it is all over now.
“I work with the Mayo Roscommon hospice for years and I’m quite used to organising events and lunches and balls and all of that, but I got a wedding planner to arrange the wedding because I just the thought of organising your own wedding and your own party was kind of a disaster.
“But it was a brilliant day and I was completely relaxed and I didn't even know what was happening on the day until it was actually happening so it was lovely.
“There is a bit of a downer after the wedding because you are with all your friends and family and everyone is around for the summer, and my two sisters both live away, one is in America and the other is in Belgium, so they are gone home with their kids.
“But it is great to be back to work and back to reality now.”
She added: “It doesn’t feel any different being married now than it did before hand.”
However, she admits she would have loved to have been able to keep her and Derry man Joe's relationship under wraps if she could have got away with it.
“We kept our relationship very private before that and if I had it my way I would still keep it quiet because it would be a lot easier but look I suppose Joe is obviously a high profile person and so people have an interest in what he does whether they like him or not.
“Thankfully I was caught up in the wedding and going away on honeymoon so I didn’t really follow many of the coverage, because I always cringe when I read stuff, so I don’t really like seeing it.”
Laurita was speaking as she teamed up with Sports Direct for their Gaelic4Mothers&Others programme, which is celebrating the return of the Gaelic4Mothers&Others National Blitz after a three-year hiatus.
The Blitz will see a total of 132 clubs involved and will take place at Naomh Mearnóg and St Sylvester’s GAA clubs in Dublin on September 3rd, 2022.
Laurita, who is an avid GAA fan and former player herself, said: “It’s a recreational, non competitive, fun, social way to play football. And some people used to play for their county, some people never played football before.
“And it is a great way for women to maybe get back into fitness and that is what I am going to definitely be using it for because I have got out of fitness since I stopped playing gaelic and you are just doing it in a group setting and it means you are having a bit of fun and getting your fitness in.”
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