RTE 2fm star Carl Mullan admits he was about to throw in the towel on his radio dream just before he got the call for the breakfast gig - after finding out he was about to become a father.
The presenter currently hosts 2fm’s Breakfast Show with Doireann Garrihy and Donncha O'Callaghan, after being announced as Eoghan McDermott’s replacement in 2021.
Describing it as a career dream come true, he told the Irish Daily Mirror: “It has been a bonkers 18 months in particular. I mean, in the last 18 months, I got the breakfast show gig, which I know everyone says like, ‘oh, it's a dream gig.
Read More: RTE stars turn out in style as 2fm presenter Carl Mullan marries childhood sweetheart
“That was honestly when I started radio, to get the breakfast gig was the gig I always wanted. Then, you know, myself and my wife, Ash got married, we had a baby.
“It's just been absolutely wild. Things took off for me in terms of online and social media, you know, it's, and it's, it's nearly all happened so fast to get the TV gig like, these are things that I never imagined would happen.”
But he has admitted it almost didn’t happen, as he was contemplating giving up the dream before the gig came his way after learning he and his wife, Aisling, were about to become parents.
The 32-year-old explained: “So we found out my wife Ash was going to be having our first baby Daibhí there in December 2020.
“We found out she was pregnant.
“And the breakfast show then came up, the opportunity for it. And I, to be honest with you, had decided right like there's a baby on the way, like I had another job on the side where I worked for the RTÉ Player.
“And had I not got the breakfast gig I at that point was gonna say, ‘right, we have a baby on the way, maybe I need to park chasing this dream’.
“Because it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of energy and there was a huge arrival on the way for us.
“So I said well, ‘Well I need to throw myself into this then as a dad’.
“But then obviously, I got the gig and I'm doing both like and I mean both things are just a dream.”
The popular social media star added: “And it all happened so fast I'm trying to make more of an effort to take it in now.
“Because, you know, this is, I know a time, I know I'm gonna look back on and go, ‘Oh, wow, that was really special’.”
Carl was speaking at RTE’s new season launch where it was announced he is set to present a brand new TV show, Takeaway Titans, alongside social media personality James Kavanagh.
Teasing what to expect from the show, which sets out to find Ireland’s best chipper, Carl said: “It's a celebration of the takeaways of Ireland essentially and it's where every week there's three takeaways compete against each other to go through the final.
“And like I mean we knew obviously it being a TV show people will try and bring their bests you know to the kitchen.
“But like we couldn't believe the standards of what people came out with it is very very good.”
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