‘It’s a lovely thing to have’ – Laura Whitmore tells Ryan Tubridy she will pass her childhood book collection to her daughter

The star, who currently resides in London, has returned to Dublin to star in the Irish run of Danny Robins’ play 2:22- A Ghost Story.

The play, which premiered in Dublin on June 20 at the 3Olympia is the story of Jenny’s (Shona McGarty) attempts to convince her husband Sam (Colin O’Donoghue), and their friends Lauren (Laura Whitmore) and Ben (Jay McGuinness) that their new house is haunted.

Whitmore was speaking as a guest on former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy’s podcast The Bookshelf.

Laura Whitmore in Profile

The podcast features guests who share a love of reading and talking about their favorite childhood book, a book that made them cry and the book that changed their life.

The Bray native and former Love Island host spoke about the role some of her childhood books had on her. Whitmore welcomed her first child with husband Iain Stirling in 2021.

“[Matilda] was the book of my childhood. I had a Roald Dahl collection and I had a Beatrix Potter one when I was younger so I read all of them and that’s lovely because I still have all of them from thirty odd years ago and now I can give that to my child – it’s a lovely thing to have,” said Whitmore.

“It just made me love the idea of reading and escapism through reading.

“There’s a resilience with Matilda – she is a badass character,” she added.

During the podcast, Tubridy and Whitmore had a far-reaching conversation where they addressed topics from her earliest memories of drama class, to how she felt after starting her job for MTV in 2008 and how her own mother inspires her to use her voice for women around the world.

Whitmore previously said she was more nervous ahead of the Dublin opening of the show than during the West End opening as she is performing in front of “a home crowd”.

“Isn’t live great, it’s such a special experience, and I think particularly with the Irish audience, we love a story, we’re all storytellers. And that’s what it is, a really good story that you get to experience with us in this one space,” she told RTÉ.

The 45-minute podcast was launched by Tubridy in April 2024, ten months after the payments controversy in RTÉ first came to light.

In August 2023, RTÉ Director General Kevin Backhursy announced that the presenter would not be returning to the station.

Ahead of the launch of his new podcast, Tubridy presented his own mid-morning show on Virgin Radio UK from January to April of this year.

The Bookshelf podcast is sponsored by Easons. Episodes are available on every major audio platform and to watch on YouTube. All books discussed are available at Easons.