Ryan Tubridy reveals how he tried therapy after his father's death seven years ago

Describing that time as a bit of an “existential crisis”, the Late Late Show presenter also revealed that he once tried therapy but found it wasn’t for him.

“I tried a bit of therapy once,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times.

“I sat down with somebody about three times. And it wasn’t for me. And I’ll tell you why. I couldn’t get out of the chat show guest mode. So that was unfortunate. I thought I should try it because everyone talks about it… so, yeah, I have to work out my stuff myself.”

He also described his parents’ separation when he was a boy as “one of the great difficulties of my life”, but added that he doesn’t dwell on this too much.

“I think that you have to get on with things. You have to be quite stoical. Otherwise you could get quite dark.

“I think we’re all complex creatures, and I’m no more, no less complex than anyone else. People’s lives are a collection of joys and difficulties.”

Tubridy also revealed that he never expected to land the Late Late Show gig at that stage of his career, thinking the RTÉ would go for a more senior star.

“I thought Miriam O’Callaghan or Gerry Ryan would get it, they were in the mix. I was quite certain it wasn’t going to be me. I just thought I was too young and maybe I was.”

Tubridy presented the final Late Late Show of the season this weekend as the show takes its annual summer break. Among the guests who joined him on the finale were sporting legends Katie Taylor and Sonia O’Sullivan, members of Ireland’s Olympic squad for Tokyo 2021, and little Adam King, returning to receive a letter from US President Joe Biden following his Late Late Toy Shop appearance at Christmas.

When the show returns in September, he said, he hopes to “draw a line under Covid. We want it to have a completely different vibe”.