Ryan Andrews has said he has been pestered by the 'What's next' question in his relationship with wife Michaela O'Neill since he was a teenager.
But the Fair City actor noted that has stopped since their summer wedding because people are much more empathetic and conscious of what is going on with couples behind the scenes when it comes to starting a family.
The couple got married in Spain during the summer.
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Ryan told RSVP Live: "I have been getting the ‘What’s next?’ since I was 15 years old. It was constantly ‘Where are you going to do it?’ as people asked when we were going to get married, but I never felt pressure from the outside.
"People don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. The ‘What’s next?’ when it comes to babies was always next after getting married, but that has changed.
"People haven’t said it to us once since we got married.
"Michaela and I are having that conversation amongst ourselves and I would love nothing more than to stay working hard to create a family for us. Like everything though, it is about the right timing."
Ryan and Michaela met as teenagers, they bought their first house together in 2020 and got engaged the following summer, so does he feel accomplished? "The overall feeling is yes, but it is very hard when you are in the moment to see what you have and what you have done.
"I look forward all the time and only recently I stopped to look back. I had a feeling of pride and I got to pat myself on the back.
"I was 27 and Michaela was 26 when we bought the house, which is great. But people don’t see the years of hard work that went in before that.
"And we worked very hard to celebrate with our friends and family on our wedding day."
The couple tied the knot on the Spanish island of Majorca during the summer.
Ryan, who plays Sean Cassidy on Fair City, said: "It has been brilliant, we had the best summer ever. Michaela is a primary school teacher, so she had the whole summer off.
"We celebrated together and did everything that we wanted to do.
"We are still holding on to the celebrations as much as possible. Nothing has really changed between us, we are still the exact same people.
"We didn’t get married to make our relationship stronger, it was just a natural progression."
Ryan is returning to the stage this Christmas to play Olly in Olly and the Beanstalk in the 3Olympia Theatre.
He said: "I love it. It is genuinely the best fun and you wait for it to come around every year.
"It is tough work doing three shows a day, but the audience's reaction and seeing the kids’ faces makes it all worth it.
"We started planning this panto the day after the last one ended and it always comes around so fast. This is my busiest time of the year so I am trying to stay on top of it so I can enjoy it all. My main goal this year is to enjoy it all because it can go by too quickly and be too hectic."
Ryan wrote the show with comedian Al Porter, but he doesn't see Al returning to acting anytime soon.
He said: "Al has been writing with me for the last seven years and he has always been part of The Olympia Panto.
"He has never taken a step away, while he hasn’t been on stage, he has still been working away backstage.
"It has taken him a long time to get back on stage and he has been selling out dates across the country. I think that is where his focus will be."
Olly and the Beanstalk runs from Wednesday 20th December 2023 - Sunday 7th January 2024 in the 3OIympia Theatre Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.ie
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