Christian O’Connell: I had everything I ever wanted, and I was falling apart
Full Disclosure with James O'Brien
Global
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From dominating the UK airwaves to starting over on the other side of the world, Christian O’Connell is a broadcaster and writer who has built a career out of connection, candour, and comedy.
In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with Christian to trace the path from his childhood in Hampshire to becoming one of the UK’s most celebrated radio voices- and the breakdown that forced him to confront what success really meant. They explore the roots of Christian’s anxiety, the healing power of storytelling, and the courage it took to walk away from it all to begin again in Australia.
Warm, unfiltered and often profound, Christian opens up about family, fame, fear and finding clarity in chaos- a conversation about reinvention, honesty, and what it takes to truly come home to yourself.
Discover more about The Heart of Speaking here
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From Katie McCabe's dad taking her to that first football match and making the impossible seem real, |
| 0:05.6 | to encouraging words and constant belief. |
| 0:08.0 | From getting scouted, to a debut, to a cap, to... |
| 0:11.9 | And Katie McCabe walks out as captain tonight. |
| 0:15.1 | A little support can change the game. |
| 0:17.2 | Win the chance to meet Katie, plus daily football match tickets. |
| 0:20.1 | Cabbery game changing wins. Grab a pack to enter. Teee's and CIS apply UK and R.O.I. 18 plus. Visit gamechanging |
| 0:25.6 | dot cabri.com.ukuk to enter and for full season season price details. MPN for R.O.I. |
| 0:30.1 | At Halford's we want you to say yes to packing more into summer days with a great value roof box or bike rack. Say yes to freewheeling fun with bikes and |
| 0:39.0 | gear for all the family. Say yes to a perfectly polished car with our range of car cleaning |
| 0:44.0 | products and say yes to easy breezy trips with a free aircon check. Our experts are on hand |
| 0:49.9 | with checks advice and fitting. So pop into your local store or shop online |
| 0:54.2 | and say yes to summer at Halford's. |
| 0:57.3 | Subject to availability, see Harvest.com for Fulties and Seas. |
| 1:02.2 | This is a Global Player Original podcast. |
| 1:20.2 | Hello and welcome to full disclosure, a podcast project that is designed to let me spend more time with interesting people than I would ever get on the radio. |
| 1:22.3 | Christian O'Connell, welcome. |
| 1:24.3 | It's a joy to be here. |
| 1:25.6 | I love your work. Oh, stop. |
| 1:26.1 | No, no, no, you're very, very good at what you're doing. Actually, I would say right now, it must be a really quiet time to be the other way around. It's strange. Do you? Do you? Yeah. I don't. I love being |
| 1:44.1 | interviewed. I found it much less taxing. Yeah. But you need to get a break because the kind of |
| 1:49.8 | radio you do, which is speech and talk, that's exhausting. I remember when I did stuff for five |
... |
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