Broadcaster and writer Maia Dunphy who was previously married to comedian Johnny Vegas, said their son Tom is now the only man in her life.‘My little man Tom is my only focus; he’s the main man in my life,’ she told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Maia and Vegas announced in 2018 that their marriage was over but briefly rekindled their relationship before parting ways in 2020.
In recent years, the TV personality has become well known for her charity work – and she revealed she even donated her wedding dress for a good cause.
‘My wedding dress was beautiful. I loved it, and every so often I would take it out and admire it,’ she said.
‘Then Lorraine Keane was doing a charity shop for Oxfam, and she was looking for wedding dresses, so I finally said, “Okay, it’s time to go to another home”, and I gave away my wedding dress.’
Maia was speaking as she turned her hand to painting to help raise funds for this year’s Incognito
art sale in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
The writer and producer – who also took part in a campaign to highlight pancreatic cancer last year – said of her charity work: ‘Doing things like this kind of brings it home how lucky you are.
‘The simple fact is, I believe that life is relative. There was a time in my 20s when I was young, carefree, and everyone in my life was healthy and I was travelling. You simply didn’t worry back then, because you didn’t have to.’
She said becoming a parent ‘fundamentally’ changes ‘your perspective’. But she added: ‘The simple fact is; if you have a very young child who is sick, the important thing you have with that child is time. What the Jack and Jill Foundation offers is support with giving families time.
‘So when you’re in a position to help in any small way, if you have time to say yes, it’s actually a real privilege. If my time is worth anything, then I’m happy.’
Away from her charity work, Maia – who stepped in front of the camera after more than a decade writing and producing – has
now returned to writing, ‘doing development work in the UK’.
Over the course of her career she has worked with many RTÉ comedy figures, including Podge & Rodge, Dustin the Turkey, Zig & Zag and Katherine Lynch. But she said she believes Irish TV is currently undergoing through a difficult transition.
‘I think Irish TV is in a bit of an unusual space,’ she told the MoS. ‘It’s in somewhat of a slump.
‘Certainly when I was working more behind the scenes in Irish TV, we really focused on Irish content. ‘I remember when I was working on Podge and Rodge and on the same night, there was Naked Camera, and there was Anonymous. That was really good, home-grown Irish comedy, genuinely funny sketch comedy.’
And she added: ‘I think we need to kind of go back to what we used to do well, rather than always trying to compete with what’s happening in the UK. Like, the Mike Murphy stuff was great. Even stuff here like Zig and Zag were really great shows.’
Maia still has a keen interest in developments at RTÉ and she believes current director general Kevin Bakhurst is doing a good job in steadying the ship after a few controversy-plagued years.
‘It’s a really difficult time for them, but I think Kevin Bakhurst is doing a really good job at a really difficult time. I don’t know him at all. I’ve never even actually met him, but I think considering he took the role of director general before the bomb dropped, I think that looking on from a distance… a different person wouldn’t have stuck it. I certainly wouldn’t.’
And while she is in favour of more feel-good entertainment shows on RTÉ such as Dancing With The Stars – in which she took part in 2018 – she believes there is no room for any more room for new chat shows.
‘I remember 10 years ago, when I was on telly a lot with the documentaries, and someone on our team said: “Would you like a chat show?” I said, “no, I wouldn’t like a chat show, and please stop giving people too many chat shows”. We have a lot.’
