Donal is a father of two.
Donal Skehan has bravely discussed his mental health struggles following his dad’s devastating diagnosis of cancer. The dad opened up about the struggles he faced when he moved to America and when he first became a father.
Speaking to Darren Kennedy on his new podcast The Number, the TV chef opened up about the “lack of consistency” in his life after he moved his family from LA back to Ireland.
But it was when his father was diagnosed with cancer that Donal’s mental health took a massive hit.
Admitting he was at breaking point after the birth of his first child, Donal said his “lifeline completely shut down…elements of depression and anxiety crept in”.
As this was happening during the Covid pandemic, he was unable to visit his parents and felt his “world was torn apart”.
He said: “Had we not gone through that, we would not have the understanding of what we wanted. It really did put a focus on things.”
When it came to fatherhood, the now dad of two admitted that the new pace in life was a massive challenge for him, saying: “I found that as a very selfish young man who was career-driven and loved going to yoga and doing things that were very fulfilling for me… I’m the eldest [in my family], always in control. So I found it really hard to give up that control to this tiny little baby.
“I remember at one point I was in Singapore and Sofie couldn’t get Noah to sleep and the go-to thing was that I would sing him to sleep because he would go to sleep when he’d hear me singing. Sofie was at the point, breaking point. I was, however, many miles away and I found a corner out of a cooking class and I was in the corner, in our little break moment, singing down the phone to Noah in a cot and going ‘this is ridiculous’.”
