RTE star Lottie Ryan opens up on terrifying night her and sister Bonnie's drinks were spiked

• Author: Katie Gallagher
• Published date: 08 November 2021
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

Following Thalia Heffernan's brave account of her own experience, Lottie said she felt compelled to tell her own story too - in the hopes to open up the conversation and reduce the feeling of embarrassment around the serious topic.

"It happened to me and my sister actually on the same night," Lottie told her pal Jennifer Zamparelli on her 2fm show on Monday.

"This is many moons ago and I won't name the venue that it happened in, it's not the venue's fault, but I don't know if it was a regular occurrence at said venue because I had heard about it happening at this place..."

Explaining the horrible ordeal, the TV and radio star pre-empted the story by stating: "I'm not a big drinker. I'm a cheap date. I know how much alcohol I can handle and it's not very much so consequently I'm not a big drinker."

For this reason, the star said she knew immediately something had gone wrong when she found herself unable to speak or walk within the space of ten minutes on a night out with her younger sister Bonnie over a decade ago.

Recalling the event, she told: "I went from being a little bit buzzy, soberish, I had one or two nothing major, to being the drunkest I've ever been in my entire life within ten minutes I'd say.

"I knew something was wrong instantly because I couldn't speak.

"I was having clear thoughts but I couldn't verbalise.

"I remember looking at my sister and she did not look good, and I thought to myself 'she looks the way I feel', something is after happening here, something is not right.

"So I immediately knew something was wrong. I knew something wasn't right. I've never felt like that, and the fact I couldn't speak, something was coming over me. I knew we had to get out of there ASAP and get home."

Lottie, 36, said her big sister instinct kicked in immediately despite her own scary state, and told how she managed to get them both out of the venue and into a taxi 'immediately'.

"I was scared as to how quickly it was happening.

"So I grabbed her and left immediately, didn't say goodbye to anybody, left coats in the cloakroom, and thank god there was a queue of taxis outside the place," she said.

"But from the door of the venue to the taxi I could feel my legs going.. Like I can't describe how quickly this happened. It was so quick. I was holding on to the wall..

"There were people laughing at us because they obviously just thought we were completely locked, which was not the situation…

"I don't remember how I figured out to get the message across to the...