06-05-2025
RTÉ's Cathy Halloran opens up about cancer diagnosis following retirement
RTÉ correspondent Cathy Halloran has opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis following her retirement from the national broadcaster.
After 38 years with the national broadcaster, the former mid-west correspondent retired on Friday.
Posting on social media following her final broadcast, she described meeting the thousands of people she has encountered over her 38-year career as 'a privilege'.
In her first interview since announcing her retirement, Halloran revealed that she received a cancer diagnosis in March 2024, just six months after her partner Nicky Woulfe was also diagnosed.
While both have received the all-clear and their prognoses are positive, their diagnoses have shifted their priorities and shaped their recent decisions.
Speaking to the RTÉ Guide about the day she received her diagnosis, she said: "If you are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, it focuses the mind. I feel good now. I don't feel 64, more like early 50s. And apart from the cancer diagnosis, I've been healthy.'
Over & out—last day @rtenews after 38 years 31as Mid West Correspondent 🙏to the 000's I met & interviewed been a privilege 🌷 — Cathy Halloran (@HalloranCathy) May 2, 2025
Halloran opened up about how her 20-year-old son John Michael took the news of her diagnosis, just six months after learning of his dad's cancer diagnosis.
"The biggest challenge was do I tell John Michael? He started college in 2023, Woulfe got cancer that October and within six months cancer had visited us both. So, with John Michael, I decided to wait until I knew more: I didn't want to burst his bubble. But he was wondering why I had been up and down to Cork. I eventually told him then about the cancer diagnosis and the visits to BreastCheck.
'He just asked me: "Mum, will you get better?' And I said: 'Absolutely!' He didn't ask me any more questions. So that's my cancer story. But I was determined to go back to work, and I did in May 2024, just in time for the Limerick mayoral election and local elections.
In many ways, work was therapy for me.
Speaking about how she met Woulfe, she said she knew him from being in and out of the RTÉ studio back in the day, long before they were a couple.
'I was there with the big hair and miniskirt and the lipstick. He asked, 'Who's your one?' We later met in a pub, and it went from there. Now here's a story that you can make of what you will,' she said.
Going on to speak about her son, she said she believes he was a gift, after finding out she was pregnant with him in her early 40s, after meeting Woulfe at 42.
"I was 43 when I had John Michael. I waited so long for him and then, the next thing, he arrived. Right through my 30s, I wanted to have a child, but I was also so happy with my nieces and nephews. And the next thing, didn't it happen,' she said.
She said that when she fell pregnant she worried about how she would manage her job with a baby but said she learned to adapt.
Speaking about what she wants to do next with her life, she shared plans to travel: Europe, Chicago, the world, visit museums and galleries, and said that university - something she never did - is also an itch.
Reflecting on her time at RTÉ, she said she will take with her the memories and said she is proud of the scripts that she wrote down through the years.
