Tommy Tiernan’s wife Yvonne has opened up about her relationship with the legendary comedian – saying it can be "challenging" being so well-known.
Yvonne told of her husband’s challenges of being so well-known with fans, admitting she knows how fascinating he is to people.
But The Raines star – who married Tommy in 2009 - said she is protective over him and her family at times and prefers to shy away from talking about her marriage to the comic as her words can be used as clickbait.
She said: "If I take a picture of our fireplace with a candle on it and put it up on our Instagram because I love home stuff, the following day there will be ‘at home with Tommy and his wife Yvonne Tiernan’ let's have a look inside their private house.... now that's only a picture of a mantelpiece.
"I’m always amazed because Tommy speaks very publicly regularly about his life, about everything in his life and he does in his stand-up too and I would never ask him not to but it's almost like…
"It’s such a part of my life that people are wanting information about Tommy, and I think that’s fine when it is him giving that information. He can choose to say whatever he wants or not about himself, but I get very protective about him and our family because it is a source for clickbait.
"Now that doesn’t mean you can't ask me about him, and people do. He is a fascinating person. I’m fascinated by him. Most people are fascinated by him and his work and want to try and understand him but for me, it is about still learning where the line is.
"And maybe even just the fact that I am married to him is interesting for people. I’d probably be interested in that. I’d probably want to ask me stuff.
"I’m part of a band that is going on tour, we want to let people know about the album and the shows and inevitably when we start doing PR, whoever it is will want to interview me.
"It becomes me being the focus. Ruth (Dillon) and Juliana (Erkkonen) are very good about it, they get it. If the band is getting some attention, as long as you don’t mind, I kind of feel a little bit uncomfortable at times but I also get how it works. I’ve been a publicist but naming it can be great.
"I sometimes think will I make something up about him just to see… you could play with it a little bit. Maybe not taking it too seriously but it can be hurtful.
"I get that. It’s challenging the whole being well-known thing," she told Sile Seoige on her Ready to be Real podcast.
Yvonne also spoke about how Tommy – who is currently on tour in America - isn’t one for going out but when he does go out with his family, he feels people looking at him.
"He says that going out publicly is like wearing big multi-coloured pants or some kind of gaudy outfit. He can feel people looking at him. You always hear (that’s) Tommy Tiernan, you hear the two Ts (with people)... so once he walks out the door, there is maybe an expectancy or a pressure put upon him.
"So it’s nice for him where he gets to be somewhere where they don’t know who he is and he gets to stand in a book shop for four hours in one section and chill. That’s nice for him but it comes with a price.
"I don’t think he is naturally somebody who is mad to go out dancing at balls, but he wouldn’t go to a lot of it.
"I used to want him to come to everything with me and I get it now. Sometimes he does and it is great but lots of times he doesn’t. I've had to do a huge amount of work on myself, stuff that would never have anything to do with who I was with but if he was in a bad mood, I would think it was something to do with me or my fault and I would have to fix it and that’s really tough, painful stuff.
"Most of the time it would have nothing to do with me but I would be very bothered, very anxious…"
Yvonne also spoke about her move to Galway with Tommy and how she struggled having no support system around her at the beginning.
"I was ready to move. Temple Bar had changed. It was a very exciting place when I moved there, and it was starting to get a bit messy, and I was ready for something new. Having a family then I suppose, I put down roots in Galway and it took a good while to get going.
"I had difficult pregnancies, I had miscarriages and I had three C-sections, Theo was born two months early, Louis was born three and a half weeks early. I had real difficulties on my pregnancy with Isabelle and a couple of miscarriages before that, so it was a really tough time and Tommy was touring all the time and we were working together as well so I was running the business side of his management and I still do.
"It was tough. I had a lot of sometimes, I think, undiagnosed post-natal depression. I really struggled with the lack of sleep. I didn’t have family in Galway.
"Neither of us are from Galway so we didn’t have any of our (support) system around us and it was really tough going… really tough for a few years," she added.
READ NEXT:
- Comedian Fred Cooke says he is 'happiest guy in town' that Tommy Tiernan didn't get Late Late Show gig
- RTE star Tommy Tiernan and wife share €1.2 million pay packet amid chat show and podcast success
Get news updates direct to your inbox by signing up to our daily newsletter here
