It’s now I say I’d like to have had more kids, RTE star Maura Derrane admits

RTE star Maura Derrane has opened up about becoming a mother at 44 and admitted “I would have liked to have more kids.”

The Today show host, who shares lookalike ten-year-old son Cal with husband John Deasy, told how their beloved boy “rules the roost” at home.

Maura, 53, said the pair have a close bond and her son even calls her by her first name.

The beloved presenter revealed: “He’s amazing and he’s the most important thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. He rules the roost and I’m his servant.

“I am the most Irish mammy that has ever been born. We’re friends, I don’t know if that is good? He calls me Maura.”

Maura, who had Cal when she was 44, said she found the commentary around the age she fell pregnant at “hilarious”.

And she told the Irish Independent: “Even when I got married in my mid-30s, I was like, ‘this is ridiculous, I’m far too young’.”

But Maura – who kicked off her TV career as a reporter on TV3 News – said that now, looking back she would have liked to have had more kids.

She said: “It’s now that I say I would like to have had more kids. At the time I didn’t, I just never felt ready then.

“But I can’t imagine not having Cal, I think long term as a parent it’s easier if you have more than one kid.”

The popular RTE star earlier this year revealed how she nearly died before giving birth to Cal.

And she said they both survived only because she was in hospital when she suffered the massive bleed late in her pregnancy.

The TV presenter revealed she had been warned by doctors ­during pregnancy she was in danger of suffering a bleed because she had a low-lying placenta.

Maura recalled she had been on the phone to her sister when she started losing blood.

She said: “I just felt something and I said to my sister, ‘I think I am having a bleed and I’m going to go now’, and she panicked.

“But I told her, ‘Stay calm, it will be fine’ and hung up. Then I called a nurse and there was blood everywhere, everywhere.

“The nurses were on me in two seconds. Immediately they started checking to see the baby was still alive, to get a heartbeat. Then they (shouted) ‘We have a heartbeat’.

“Then things moved so fast. Within 15 minutes, I was in surgery. They were knocking me out and somebody was putting a tube down my throat.”

TOUGH TIME

And Maura said the next thing she remembered was waking up in bed with her former Fine Gael politician husband John by her side.

Maura recalled: “I couldn’t comprehend anything. John told me, ‘It’s a boy’ but I couldn’t see him for 24 hours because I was so ill.”

She paid tribute to John for looking after her and Cal in the days that followed.

Maura said: “The moment I got him home, John did everything, all the feeds. I couldn’t even attempt to feed him myself because I couldn’t sit up.”