Pat Kenny with Daniel and Majella O’Donnell.
DANIEL and Majella O’Donnell will appear on this Monday night’s episode of Pat Kenny in the Round at 9pm – marking the final episode of the season, before the series returns in autumn. Throughout the episode, Daniel and Majella speak candidly about Daniel’s fame, his strong and loyal fan-base, their brief separation prior to their marriage, Majella’s battle with breast cancer and Ireland’s recent Marriage Equality Referendum.
Also speaking openly about her ongoing struggle with depression, Majella said: n“It is a terrible place to be. I say depression is a place to be, because it is. You might physically be sitting in one place, but you really are not there at all. For me, I’m down a very deep dark well and people are all around the top looking down at me and I can’t connect with them and they can’t connect with me – even though it could be a room full of people. So yeah, you just feel like the world would be a better place without you – that you’re a burden, that you’re dragging everybody else down.
“It’s not that the depression is gone, but I understand it more and I can recognise when it’s coming and I know now what can bring it on – if I’m over tired, if I do too much, I can kind of get a bit down, so I recognise it coming. I do go into it thinking, now you’ve been here before Majella, batten down the hatches, get on with it, but you will come out again. Every time you do go in, there’s always a little bit of fear of, what if I don’t, but I keep myself positive saying I will… I will come out of it, and I do.”
Speaking about how he attempts to support Majella through those difficult times, Daniel said: “Well thankfully, I suppose Majella would probably agree with me that her bouts of depression are very few and far between. Now albeit, there are times when she does get down but, what do I do? You know, I think in our case, it’s very important to leave her alone – and I don’t mean go away from her, but you know, I found that even to ask her does she want tea, she can’t even answer that question. She can’t even make up her mind if she wants the tea or whether she doesn’t want it. A simple thing like that is difficult. I mean, I don’t understand depression because I don’t suffer from depression, so I can’t understand it. All I can do is try and figure out what way you should be with somebody, and that’s to be there and not to be bothersome.”
Pat Kenny’s interview with Daniel and Majella O’Donnell will broadcast on Monday, 8th June at 9pm, exclusively on UTV Ireland. For anyone affected by comments on this week’s Pat Kenny in the Round, support is available through the National Cancer Helpline (1800 200 700) and through the Samaritans (116 123).
UTV Ireland is available on Sky channel 116, Saorview channel 6, UPC channel 110 and eVision channel 108. UTV Ireland also offers a catch-up service on www.utv.ie and on the UTV Player, available to download on smart devices.
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