Majella O’Donnell has opened up about struggling to conceive with husband Daniel in the early days of their marriage.
The businesswoman wed the Donegal singer in 2002 when they were 42 and 40, respectively. And she said that she thinks now “it was for the best”.
Majella has two children Siobhan and Michael from her first marriage and welcomed her first grandchild, a baby girl called Olivia, last year.
“Well yes, we did try but nothing happened. It wasn’t meant to be. We didn’t try for too long because I was 42 when I married him, we never prevented it but it never happened.
“Now I realise it was for the best. Imagine if I was at home and a child going to school? Now we have the best of both worlds – Olivia is like having our own baby,” she told RSVP Magazine.
Majella said her own parenting style was “fairly strict” but also filled them with encouragement and gave lots of love.
“I was fairly strict, I had a very strict upbringing so I suppose that definitely rubbed off on me. Saying that, I would like to think I was a watered down version of what I had,” she added. ”
“I made a massive point in telling them that they could do whatever they wanted to do and achieve whatever they wanted to achieve in life and how much I love them, because for me, this wasn’t something I heard much of…You do your best as a parent and you will always do something wrong.
“But you do your best.”
Daniel added: “We were 40 when we got married so it wasn’t like we were teenagers. The chances of having children at that age were slim. It is a bit easier to travel when you don’t have kids, of course it is, but it wasn’t as if we didn’t have any children.
“Majella had Siobhan and Michael and I was very lucky to have them in my life. We always had to consider them both because they were part of our lives.”
The couple have a famously rock solid marriage, which Daniel credits to simply enjoying each other’s company, adding they are “generally compatible”.
“As the years go on, we have go to know each other better and like other more and we have a great time when we are alone,” he told the magazine.
“We are apart quite a lot, but I believe that we get to spend more time together than a regular couple because the time we have by ourselves is uninterrupted.”