Grief and the joy of new life have been ‘living side by side’ in broadcaster Anna Geary, who gave birth to her first child last year but also recently lost her beloved dad and brother. Here, the new mum talks about coping with grief, body confidence and the importance of being herself
Anna Geary. Photo: Steve Humphreys
There are eventful years, and then there’s the 2023 that Anna Geary has just had. Personally and professionally, the highs were dizzyingly high and the lows were unimaginably so. Her RTÉ show Love In The Country hit upon a winning formula, with viewers praising the “scandalous” dating show and wondering aloud on the internet why it wasn’t made “years ago”. Geary and her husband, GAA executive Kevin Sexton, welcomed baby Ronan into the family in August, a mere three days after Geary had appeared on RTÉ’s Up For The Match.
Motherhood was every bit as euphoric and discombobulating as she suspected it might be, yet just as Geary was finding her sea legs, her family endured a major loss. In November, Geary’s only sibling, Thomas, suddenly died at the age of 34 after a short illness. By then, the former camogie player was already on a significant grief journey — her beloved father, Michael, died in March 2022 after receiving a terminal diagnosis, one that Geary admits she found “very hard to accept”.