Miriam O’Callaghan has said she has no ambitions to serve as President of Ireland - despite rumours of a run for the Park stretching back decades. 

The Prime Time host has recently published a memoir, Miriam: Life, Work, Everything,  revealing the ups and downs of her career as one of Ireland’s most high profile journalists. 

Always a firm favourite with viewers, it has often been suggested that she would poll well if she swapped journalism for politics. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Pat said he remembered the rumour mill at RTÉ went into overdrive when news spread through Montrose that she was taking Irish classes. 

 “That’s because I loved the language,” Ms O’Callaghan recalled, laughing.  

Still, although she has issued repeated denials, she described it as a “rumour that never went away”. 

“And probably there’s a part out of my brain that never wanted to rule anything out completely out for a while until I’ve made a decision,” she said.  

“17 years ago, I just put a statement out and I kept putting statements out saying, ‘I’m not running for the presidency.’” 

Miriam O'Callaghan. Picture by: Alamy.com.

As well as her career highs and lows, the book also documents the personal. 

The tragic death of her sister Anne in 1995, which was quickly followed by the loss of her father. 

She also talks about her two marriages and the birth of her eight children. 

“I had so many emergencies, nothing went right in my pregnancies,” Ms O’Callaghan explained. 

“The pregnancies were brilliant but the births were chaotic.” 

Ms O’Callaghn’s youngest son was born at 21 weeks. 

She developed a condition called a placenta praevia and he “nearly died”. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night, massive haemorrhage," she remembered. 

“Long story short, I went into hospital on Holles Street; was there for hours and I was convinced the little boy, who was 21 weeks, couldn’t survive that.” 

 

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It was only the intervention of one doctor that convinced Ms O’Callaghan that he would survive. 

“Professor Hurley walks in around six in the morning and I thought he was going to sympathise with me,” she recalled. 

“He said, ‘Miriam, you’re going to cop yourself on now because if you give up on this baby, he is going to give up on you.’ 

“In that moment, I changed and he’s now a 6ft2, 19 year old student, gorgeous looking.” 

Miriam: Life, Work, Everything is available in bookstores now.

Main image: Miriam O'Callaghan. Picture by: Liam Murphy/Alamy Live News.