Joanna Donnelly‘s daughter, Nicci, took to the runway in both the Bold Golf and Sinéad O’Dwyer shows during Ireland Fashion Week.

EVOKE caught up with proud as punch Joanna, who gushed that she’s ‘delighted’ her daughter bagged this opportunity.

The former Dancing with the Stars contestant also shared how Nicci’s modelling career was pretty much written in the stars; that it was always inevitable she’d end up on the runway.

‘Well, I’m delighted,’ Joanna told us. ‘I mean, whenever your child is doing anything, from kindergarten to making their own life in anything in any way, as a parent, you’re delighted.

‘It’s great that she’s having opportunities and succeeding. She’s really excited by fashion and the whole fashion industry, so having her out there and getting an opportunity like this, it’s quite exciting.’

Joanna explained that because of Nicci’s height and stature, she always attracted attention from agents, joking that she’d hoped she’d pivot towards a career as a doctor or engineer.

‘Nicci’s very tall. You’ve seen her, you know what she’s like, but she was like that when she was in primary school,’ Joanna remembered. ‘She was already the height she is now when she was finishing school at 13 (5’9″).

‘And she has that look about her, you know. She has that distinctive look and people kept saying to me, “She should be a model”.

‘I kept saying back to them, “Or a doctor. Or an engineer!” I wasn’t really one for encouraging the idea of her being a model. It’s a great opportunity when it comes your way, but pursuing it can be soul destroying, I think.’

‘She was actually about 16 when she was approached on the train. She was going into school on the DART, and she was approached by the model agency that she’s with now still,’ Joanna said.

‘She’s a ballerina, she did ballet, so she had a kind of posture about her. They approached her and she came home and said, “Mom, this model agency approached me, and I was like, “Oh, no”.

‘But we investigated it all and found out that it was a legitimate thing. It didn’t work out that time because she was a bit young, but then she was approached again a couple of years later, and then she was approached again.’

‘They just kept coming up to her at various points and saying, “Would you like to be a model?” Eventually, she just went along from there,’ Joanna said.

‘It’s been a nice sideline, a nice distraction for her, and I think she really does enjoy it.

‘She did a Burberry shoot before and her picture was up in Heathrow Airport on the wall, and my friends, anybody flying through London sent me a photo of Nicci on the wall. It was really cute. It was very fun.’