Majella O’Donnell Opens Up About Pain of Not Having a Child with Daniel: “I Wish I Could Have Given Him a Baby”
Majella O’Donnell has spoken with rare honesty about one of her deepest regrets — not having a child with her husband, Irish music legend Daniel O’Donnell.
In an interview on RTÉ’s Time Out with Brendan O’Connor, Majella revealed that although she already had children from a previous marriage, she wished she could have given Daniel a baby of his own. The couple, who married in 2002, have never had children together during their 16 years of marriage.
“I supposed I wanted it more so for Daniel,” Majella, 58, explained. “I’d had my kids, I wasn’t too bothered. I would have loved to have given him a child. I was 42. We didn’t do anything to prevent it and nothing ever happened. It was kind of like it wasn’t meant to be. Now, I am so grateful, I am really grateful, that I haven’t got a baby or a 15-year-old.”
Despite this, Majella said Daniel has shown himself to be “absolutely fabulous” with her grandchildren, stepping into a hands-on role with warmth and patience.
“I mean getting up in the middle of the night, changing the poo-iest nappies, feeding them,” she said. “He’s real hands-on and I said to him, ‘God, it is such a shame that you didn’t have your own children, you would have been a great father.’ And he said, ‘No, Majella, I wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t have been here. I would have been away on tour because that is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be travelling all the time.’”
Majella also reflected on their first meeting, admitting she carried her own misconceptions about Daniel before they began dating. “Initially, I thought country music, knitted jumpers, drinks tea, no craic. That is probably what a lot of people perceive — and they are very wrong. I found him very engaging, very funny, very witty, which surprised me. And I realised when you meet somebody, you don’t have to be into what they’re into to love them.”
During the conversation, Majella also addressed what she felt were “cutting remarks” made about Daniel by host Brendan O’Connor in the past. “I have heard you talking about him on shows. Somebody will say something and you’ll have a cutting remark to make,” she said. O’Connor defended himself, suggesting Daniel’s place in Irish culture inevitably invited jokes, but Majella countered: “That’s only because people are not seeing what I saw all the way along.”
The couple, who have shared their love story with the public through television appearances and joint projects, remain one of Ireland’s most beloved celebrity pairings. And while Majella says she sometimes wishes she could have given Daniel a child of his own, she insists that their life together — enriched by family, grandchildren, and shared humor — is filled with love.