‘It’s been really difficult’ Louise McSharry announces marriage split as she comes out as gay

Louise McSharry has been sheltering a huge chunk of her personal life from the public for three years, but she’s finally ready to talk about it.

The former RTÉ 2FM presenter made the brave decision to share the ‘difficult’ life update that she’s come out as gay and her marriage to her husband Gordon Spierin has come to an end.

The former couple, who tied the knot in 2015, ‘have managed to transition to a beautiful friendship’, and they’ll continue to co-parent their sons, Sam and Ted, amicably.

Electric Picnic 2017 Evening Launch, Gordon Spierin (husband), Louise McSharry. Pic: VIPIRELAND.com

Louise shared the news with her fans on Friday via an episode of her podcast, Catch Up, facilitated by Una Mullally.

The 43-year-old recalled she realised she was gay in 2022. She had had ‘a question mark around my sexuality for a long time’, and after enduring an emotional therapy session, she ‘landed on the fact that I’m a gay woman’.

Gordon Spierin & Louise McSharry. Pic: Kieran Harnett

Recounting her return home for the enlightening therapy session, Louise told Una: ‘[Gordon] was like, “Are you okay?” and I was like, “Yeah?” and then I started crying again. I said, “I think I’m gay”, and he said, “I’m not surprised”.

‘That obviously set off a massive domino effect in our lives, what it meant for our relationship, what it meant for our family, our immediate family, us and the boys. What our future was going to look like, all of these questions, I didn’t really have answers to them at the time.’

Pic: Louise McSharry/Instagram

In the coming weeks, Louise will be moving out of their family home and into her own pad. She admitted: ‘This week, I bought a house. I finally closed on a house, so I will be moving in the next couple of weeks into my own space, and we are going to have a new family life. It’s been really difficult, and it’s been really strange not to talk about stuff.’

‘The most difficult part for me is the Gordon of it all, because I care so much about him. I feel so lucky that we have managed to transition to a beautiful friendship.

‘It’s obviously complicated, and it’s been really difficult, but we are in a really good place now.’

Louise McSharry and her son Sam pictured at the launch of Lapland at Luggwoods in South Dublin. Pic: Brian McEvoy

Speaking candidly about questioning her sexuality, Louise continued: ‘A question mark had appeared after I got married. Gordon was actually the first, he said to me, “Do you think you’re bisexual?”, and I was like, “Yeah probably, but I love you and I’m married to you and I want to be with you forever, so it doesn’t really matter.”

‘That was my kind of response, and I really meant it at the time.

‘The more I talked about it, the more I was like, “You’re kidding yourself. This is wild, but you have somehow genuinely missed this”, and that was a really hard thing for me to get my head around.’

Gordon Spierin and Louise McSharry. Pic: Kieran Harnett

Louise also opened up about how she approached the major life change with her children, Sam and Ted. She said: ‘When I talked to my kids about what’s going on, I said, “You know how some people are gay?” and they were like, “Yeah”, and I said, “Some people know that their whole life, and some people just don’t figure it out for a really long time, and I’m one of the people who just didn’t figure it out,” and that is the truth.

‘We didn’t tell the kids until relatively recently because nothing was changing in their life, so it felt weird to present this slightly abstract concept to them without any actual change.

‘The first year was really hard because we were both processing, and we were hurt for different reasons.’

Louise McSharry with her son, Sam. Pic: Louise McSharry/Instagram

‘I was obviously so guilty and worried about [Gordon], and all that stuff was really hard the first year. But because we had to live together for so long, we had to push through that and find a new way of being,’ Louise explained.

‘I’m obviously quite emotional about [moving house] because it feels wrong to not be doing it with Gordon. It’s very difficult because we’re not fighting.

‘We’re not in a bad place. We love each other so much. There’s no one I want to spend time with more than him.’

Louise McSharry and Gordon Spierin. Pic: Louise McSharry/Instagram

Louise went on to describe Gordon as her ‘best friend’, adding: ‘To be willingly separating our lives is really difficult, but equally, you have to have faith that it’s the right thing.

The podcaster shared her hopes for the future, continuing: ‘Gordon deserves to have a full romantic relationship, and I have to give myself the chance to explore this as well.’