Dermot O'Leary - Personal Life

Personal Life

O'Leary supports Arsenal F.C., Celtic F.C., London Irish RUFC and politically the Labour Party and he has identified himself as a socialist. He can be heard on the 'Footballistically Arsenal' podcast with his friends and fellow Arsenal fans Dan Baldwin and Boyd Hilton, and on this show it was mentioned that he owns shares in the club. He supports Wexford GAA in Gaelic Games, attending matches in the past. During an appearance as a studio guest on Fantasy Football Euro 2004, O'Leary spoke of his support for the Republic of Ireland football team.

When O'Leary was in his late teens, he played American football for his local team, the Colchester Gladiators. In his early years, he was good friends with Lord Gimpett, with whom he lived In London. He ran the 2005 London Marathon (his third) under four hours for the first time. In 2007 he was an usher at the wedding of Holly Willoughby. He is also a practising Roman Catholic, having contributed to the collection of essays Why I am Still Catholic in 2005. In the February 2008 issue of the Irish magazine, Social and Personal, O'Leary was voted the sexiest man in Ireland out of the Top 100.

O'Leary has campaigned on behalf of Make Poverty History, and has visited Sierra Leone with CAFOD accompanied by his father. He is also a patron of the male cancer awareness campaign, Everyman. In 2003, he played in a charity match for the Colchester Gladiators as a punt returner, helping to raise £2,500 for the Barnardo's children's fund.

On 19 November 2011 during an episode of Xtra Factor, it was announced that O'Leary was engaged to his long-term girlfriend Dee Koppang. He married Dee at St Mary's Church, Chiddingstone in Kent, UK on 14 September 2012 arriving at the church in a cream coloured Mercedes-Benz Pagoda.

He co-owns the FishyFishy restaurants in Brighton and Poole.

O'Leary says his funeral song would be "Tonight We Fly" by the Divine Comedy.

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    A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.
    Thomas Mann (1875–1955)