John McAreavey finds new love; Michaela 'always a part of my life'

John met Tara, who is an accountant from Kildare, in Dublin last year and the inter-county footballer told Pat Kenny on Newstalk this morning how he was able to move on because of his faith.

"I don’t see Michaela as being completely lost. She’s just in a different place now and I know she is happy now."

John revealed how "the rawness started to leave" after the murder of his wife in the resort in Mauritius in January 2011.

He said: "I started to think of it in a different way, I reconciled it in my head that it would have been a very short period of time for Michaela, she probably would have gone unconscious quite early.

"And then, whilst people have said that to me in the past that it wasn't God's decision - perhaps to just try and make me feel better about it - but it was God's decision to take her on board at that stage."

"The biggest thing for me now, and why I am able to start a new life and to be happy and optimistic and hopeful is because I know where Michaela is now. I know that she is very happy where she is".

Pat Kenny asked him if there were times when he thought he couldn't start again.

John replied: "Yes, because when you get so close to someone, you marry them, you really do become as one, so when that gets torn apart, you almost lose your identity.

"For myself I got caught in this big whirlwind, it was just John and Michaela, John and Michaela.

"And then whenever anynody saw me they just thought of this terrible incident, you do lose a bit of your identity and I didn't want that to be a defining feature of my life, so I started on a conscious level to reclaim my identity, start to get into things I'm passionate about again, started to get into my football, to get into my work and started to get into my charity work.

"You find yourself building a new life."