Grainne Seoige has opened up about being back home in Ireland following a number of years spent in South Africa with her husband Leon Jordaan.
The television presenter can currently be seen on Dancing with the Stars, where she escaped elimination on Sunday after finding herself in the bottom of three.
Grainne returned home to Ireland to be closer with her family after the death of Leon’s father made the couple revaluate their plans.
‘It changed our view on what what we want to do and where we wanted to be. It was Leon himself who said “look your mother and father are still healthy and hearty”. But you never know life is like that and we know that more than ever when that last day is,’ she said while appearing on Ireland AM.
The decision to move home was an easy one for Grainne because ‘if you have the person you love with you, you can be settle anywhere’.
She explained: ‘As long as you have your unit you can be settled anywhere. Leon spent ten years in Ireland before we moved back, he’s an Irish citizen and knows Galway like the back of his hand because he coached Corinthians down there for a couple of years… Galway is a second home to him so it’s been easy.’
Following the birth of her sister’s Sile’s daughter, Grainne is enjoying all the ‘snuggle time’ with her niece while still being able to say ‘there you go, return to sender’ once the tears begin to emerge.
‘It’s great to be back and everyone stayed healthy during the the whole thing which is such a blessing and now there’s baby Cliona as well. She’s 10 weeks old… she’s absolutely stunning. She’s the most beautiful baby ever. We’re all obsessed with her,’ she said.
Grainne’s parents went to see their daughter dance at the weekend and were very impressed by her new found dancing skills.
The 48-year-old is keen to ‘keep improving’ on the dance floor and explained why she chose to go on the show in the first place.
‘I’ve been working from home for the last five years, we’ve all been stuck at home for two years and this was an opportunity to get out, meet people and to learn something I’ve wanted to learn how to do.
‘They don’t really tell you how much time commitment is involved and probably just as well because you would probably “say that’s too much”. Once you’re into it then you want to get good at it and you want to give a good account of yourself.
‘Your pro partner is pouring 25 years of experience into it, you don’t want to let them down. Hence the red dress and the braids down to you know where,’ she joked.