Inside Miriam O’Callaghan’s family life from divorce to long distance marriage

RTE star Miriam O’Callaghan’s husband, Steve Carson will be joining her at the national broadcaster.

RTE announced yesterday that Steve will become the new Director of Video at the station, with the move set to happen this autumn.

Within her near three decade long stint at RTE, Miriam has reached many personal milestones and career achievements with the broadcaster.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Dublin beauty’s family life.

EARLY LIFE

 Miriam, who was named after her mum, was born on January 6, 1960, making her 64-years-old.

She is from Foxrock Co.Dublin and has two siblings, politician Jim O’Callaghan and sister, Anne who sadly passed away at 33.

Miriam’s father, Jerry, was a senior civil servant in the Department of Energy and he passed away suddenly from a stroke on May 3, 1995.

After completing the leaving cert in 1978, Miriam went on to UCD to study Law where she also completed a post-graduate diploma in European Law.

Soon after qualifying as a solicitor in 1983, she moved to London with her then husband, Tom McGurk, and worked as a researcher for a production company.

MARRIAGES

Miriam has been married twice, first to Tom McGurk in 1983 and had four children with him; Alannah, Clara, and twins Jessica and Georgia.

In 2021, Miriam became a grandmother, when her daughter Alannah gave birth to Eabha Anne – aptly named after Miriam’s sister.

She split from Tom in 1995 and in the same year met her now husband Steve as the pair were working on BBC Newsnight.

At the time of their meeting the pair fell “head over heels” for each other while working on a documentary.

She explained: “We met in June 1995, when we were both working for BBC Newsnight and we were making a film on the Irish famine.”

RAISING A FAMILY

After having only met in the UK in 1995, Miriam decided to move back to Ireland to care for her ailing sister Anne.

While Steve remained in the UK where his career continued to flourish.

He understood his wife’s need to move back to be with her sister as he had lost his mum to cancer when he was just four.

Together they had four more children, ironically four boys, after previously having all girls in her last marriage; Conor, Jack, Daniel and Steve.

Recently they had to endure a long distance marriage as her husband got a job as director of BBC Scotland.

WORKING WITH HER HUSBAND

The couple had previously worked together in RTE. In 2009 Steve was made RTE’s Director of Programmes, until he left to head BBC Northern Ireland’s programming.

Miriam had previously discussed the difficulty in having a long distance marriage, while she retained her career in Dublin and her husband worked in Scotland.

The Prime Time host told RSVP: “I think what matters is that you both end up doing something that you love so that you feel fulfilled.

“You’ve only got one life and I don’t want to be on my deathbed wondering what I did with my life. I want to fill every moment of it doing what I enjoy.

“I want my husband Steve to be happy to be able to do what he wants and we are back together before you know it, the week apart flies.”

It seems the pair’s separate work schedules have been worth while as they both secure hefty annual paychecks.

HOW MUCH DO THEY MAKE?

Together the couple own a production company together, called Mint Productions, which produces numerous TV shows and documentaries for RTE and BBC.

In 2020 and 2021 Miriam made €263,500, which is down €56,500 from her 2019 pay day of €320,000.

In 2022 at the BBC her husband Steve made €199,500.

When recently speaking to RTE about retirement Miriam said: “I might not be doing a Barbara Walters and working into my 90s but I’m not going anywhere soon.”

Career

Miriam has spent a majority of her professional career working for the national broadcaster.

She joined RTE in 1993 where she balanced working with the broadcaster and BBC.

In 1996 she joined RTE full time where she hosted Prime Time, which she still hosts to this day.

Miriam has had many career highlights with the broadcaster, including being the first women to host a full episode of The Late Late Show.

In 2005 Miriam got her own chat show, Saturday Night with Miriam, which lasted for five series until 2009. Since then the show has made sporadic come backs in RTE’s summer schedule.

The 64-year-old made her radio debut in 2009 and since then has manged to stay consistently on the air waves.