Una opens up on The Late Late Show

Mullingar baker Una Leonard made her debut appearance on The Late Late Show last night where she spoke to host Ryan Tubridy about her eating disorder, the loss of her beloved grandmother and how her bakery came to be.

Tubridy kicked off the interview and asked Una to discuss how her eating disorder developed.

He compared Una’s experiences to Ekin-Su’s, the famous Love Island star, following their interview just two weeks ago.

Una said: “My eating disorder started around fifth or sixth year in school when I began getting very self-conscious.

“It was when there was food involved. I felt very uncomfortable eating in front of people. It got to the point where I was dreading that lunchtime bell.

“One of my lovely teachers actually noticed it over a few weeks and she asked me if I would like to stay back an extra ten minutes to eat my lunch with her.

“At first, I said no, but then I realised it was a safe space and that I was okay.

“I know there were maybe two times a week where she was outside doing yard duty which meant we couldn't have lunch together and so I just wouldn't eat.”

Ms Leonard went on to share her college experience studying Culinary Arts and Business in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and told of how her eating disorder progressed into anorexia and bulimia.

“I couldn't eat in front of my housemates and I wouldn't even step into the college canteen.”

As the interview continued Una reminisced about her Granny Leonard and jokingly said that neither she nor her sister knew their granny's birth name until after she had passed away in 2011.

“We always just knew her as Dotey and I remember my sister saying, ‘wait what is her actual name’ after granny had passed away.

“We lived with granny as such and so she was a part of everything we did.

“She was just an amazing woman, I looked up to her so much.

“I can't describe it but I just didn't know how to cope with it when she passed.

“I didn't understand what death was and I didn't know what I was going to do without her.

“For so long I was hanging on and doing the best that I could not knowing that I was actually unwell and when she was gone, I didn't know what to do.”

Una also bravely shared the moments leading up to when she decided to take her own life.

“I went into this numbness. It was like my body just went and pushed it (grief) all down.

“I didn't care about anything, especially not myself. I just went into this dark hole and didn't even realise it.

“I was in the car a lot travelling from Westmeath to Galway and to the new job and so on my journeys I would just fight with myself.

“After weeks and weeks of hell, constant panic attacks and just not wanting to be around my friends, I made the decision that I was going to take my own life.”

She went on to say that she paused and for a couple of seconds, she felt a positive, happy feeling and thankfully, it was then that she realised she needed to get out of the darkness she was in.

In response to Tubridy asking what had saved her life, Una spoke about her nephew and recalled the day that he asked her to make a John Deere tractor cake for him.

Host Tubridy smiled and asked: “So a cake saved your life?”

Una got help for her illnesses and spent months working on her relationship with food.

She said the nurses were fantastic and started her on the road to recovery with just a bowl of peas.

She also revealed how her bakery's name came to be.

“I was walking the streets of Mullingar when I saw the shop space up for rent at €750 a month.

“I asked the guys in there how fast they wanted to get out and they said very fast so I rang the landlady and I took it.

“My nephew was born on February 2 2010 and so when I was opening up my shop, we called it after his date of birth, 2210.

“The shop changed my life.”

Una spoke about her new book as the interview came to a close.

She said: “It started as a joke but I said that I wanted to have a cookbook by the time I was 30 and I’ll be 30 this Christmas Day, so there we go.”

Una was also joined on The Late Late by fellow Mullingar natives, The Academic, who impressed the audience with a performance of their new track, Don't Take It Personally.

Sweet Therapy - The Joys of Baking is available to purchase in bookstores nationwide and on 2210patisserie.ie.