Leo Varadkar reveals he has no plans to have children with partner and would like to get a tattoo

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Photo: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Gabija Gataveckaite

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said in an interview that he won’t have children with long-term partner Matt Barrett.

On the Left on Read podcast, hosted by Corkonians Julie Haynes and Brenda Dennehy, the Dublin West TD also revealed he wanted to get a tattoo and that he did not want to run for the Áras.

“[Matt is] definitely my partner for life, or at least I hope he is... we talked about marriage, but no immediate plans to do so. And no particular reason to do so,” Mr Varadkar said.

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“I don’t think kids are in our future, to be honest, not that I have anything against them, but it’s nice to give them back.”

He said he and Mr Barrett met when he was health minister in 2015 and that they had been together for nine years.

“ A long time in gay years,” he added.

He said he liked tattoos and intended to get one.

He also revealed he had drunk alcohol while he was under-age.

“Never got into smoking. I think everyone in Ireland would have drunk slightly under-age at some stage,” he said.

He admitted he liked red wine and “anything with rum in it”.

Mr Varadkar said he never had a “proper girlfriend, but that some girls had fancied him but it “didn’t work out”.

“When I did come out, I think they were all kind of happy that, actually, it was me and not them,” he said.

He said the US presidential election was a contest between an “81-year-old and a six-year-old” and said he feared Donald Trump would “sell out Ukraine” and “cut a deal with Russia”.

“That would mean millions more refugees and also I think it would send the wrong message and another country would be attacked next – Putin wouldn’t stop at four countries, he’d attack Poland or Estonia or Latvia or Lithuania,” he said.

He said the thing he would miss most about being taoiseach was being able to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

“I’ll never be able to make a difference in the lives of millions of people ever again. On the upside, I’ll never get blamed for the problems of millions of people ever again,” he said.

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