[citation needed] Gareth married Paula on September 17, 2020 and live together in Cork When he was eleven years of age in the early 1970s, O'Callaghan was first abused while staying at a Franciscan Brothers house, St Anthony's, in Clara, County Offaly, along with a group of young people he knew.

[1] After telling a teacher he was ill he left school early, approaching his Inter Cert examinations, and attended confession at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral with the intention of explaining what had happened to him.

[1] He then told his mother when he returned home and received a more sympathetic response, with her insisting he was not to blame for what had happened.

After leaving 2fm, O'Callaghan took some time out from radio to pursue a career in psychology before being named presenter of the breakfast show on Galway Bay FM.

[6] In January 2022, it was announced the O'Callaghan was to return to Ireland's Classic Hits Radio, to present a new Saturday morning programme.

Boylan announced his intention to run for a seat in the 2024 European Parliament election in Ireland live on air, and agreed to step down with immediate effect for editorial reasons.

He has contributed two stories to the New Island Open Door series, entitled Joe's Wedding and Stray Dog.

[8] New Island publishes literary fiction, poetry, drama, biography, politics and social affairs.

The book detailed how, as soon as left his radio job each day, he would retreat to his bed, sometimes with thoughts of suicide.

[citation needed] His seventh book, What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark, was published in March 2021.

[1] In March 2018, O'Callaghan announced to listeners of Neil Prendeville's Cork's Red FM show that he had developed Parkinson's disease (PD).

O'Callaghan mentioned that, prior to his diagnosis, he had read a Daily Mail article in which DJ David Jensen spoke of his experience of Parkinson's.

[10] O'Callaghan retired from radio in August 2018 after being diagnosed with the neurodegenerative illness multiple system atrophy (MSA), an incurable and even more rare disease (less than 3,500 people were at the time thought to be enduring the condition in the whole of Ireland and the UK).

I thought I might have been able to continue working as normal for another few months but, unfortunately, the pace and the painful decline of this awful thing has really taken us by surprise.

[11] O'Callaghan is a prominent supporter of suicide and depression-related topics,[12] having had previous personal experience of these throughout his adult life.