Lucy Kennedy has revealed she felt guilty that she couldn’t splash out on her three kids because she didn’t have the money.
The broadcaster stepped back from TV for 18 months to focus on family life after her exit from The Six O'Clock Show on Virgin Media Television.
She admitted it is hard being away from teenager Jack, nine-year-old Holly and Jessica, who is five, while filming and working so early.
Speaking to RSVP Magazine Lucy said: "I think back to the time where I put telly on hold for a year and a half to be a mum full time.
"I felt guilty that I couldn’t go to Smyths to splash out on them because I didn’t have the money.
"Two parents work in a lot of families these days, and you are guilty if you work and you are guilty if you don’t work."
Lucy and her husband Richie try to strike the right balance at home, sharing the school run.
She said: "I took the day off work to bring Jess to her first day of school, but I felt guilty the following morning when I wasn’t there for her second day.
"Rich does the drop off and I do have that guilt that I don’t do them. When they are sick, it takes a bit of organisation to drop everything for them.
"I try to compensate by being fun when I collect them for school. For me, I feel like the collection is more important because I get the first news from them. Also, the day is over and I am not rushing them out the door."
Lucy gets up early in the morning to front the Classic Hits breakfast show. Ireland AM star Alan Hughes recently said sleeping in a separate bedroom saved his marriage to husband Karl Broderick, but she and Richie never followed that rule.
"I am way more selfish than Alan," she joked. "We prerecord the show for the first hour so I don’t need to get up until 5.50am.
"I wake up Rich, good luck to him, I have to find socks, hair brushes and everything's because I am not that organised. He made the vows to marry me, so it is warts and all."
Is it hard not to wake the kids at home? "Yes, and it is hard to wake Riley downstairs. Riley, my other daughter, will be 2 in November, my little doggy.
"I am conscious not to wake her because if she gets up then the whole neighbourhood will be awake.
"She sounds like me when she barks, she has a deep voice. It is loud, she is a canine version of me."
Lucy is currently presenting "Lucy Investigates" on Virgin Media One, but there are plans to bring back Living with Lucy next year.
She said: "I am moving in with people next month. A new season of Living with Lucy will air in the New Year.
"I don’t know who I will be living with, but as we speak a team is contacting celebrities. I don’t know who they are, but, as always, Jamie Dornan is top of my list. I wouldn’t mind living with Harry Styles either."
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