TikTok star Kayleigh Trappe says she's not replacing Lottie Ryan on ...

The popular content creator and lip-sync artist dismissed the reports in an interview on the latest The 2 Johnnies podcast hosted by former 2FM stars Johnny McMahon and Johnny O'Brien.

Asked to finally address the speculation, Kayleigh revealed she was on holiday when the story broke.

“One minute I was sipping a cocktail on the beach in Croatia, and the next thing I was due to start Drivetime at 3 o’clock on Friday,” she joked.

“My father rang me and said, ‘Do you have a minute?’ Which is something you don’t want to hear from your father. I said, ‘Do you have something to tell me? Is someone dead?’

“He said, ‘Are you starting a new job on Friday?’ I said, ‘Don’t believe all you hear.’ Thinking it was a wee thing.”

The Monaghan native revealed how the press “were all coming at me”, but said the “worst part of it was the congratulations messages that were coming in”.

“Tommy Bowe sent me this wee poem of congratulations, like ‘doing it for Monaghan, Kayleigh, we’re delighted for ya’. And I was like, I feel like I’ve let them all down.”

Kayleigh stressed she was never in line for a job at 2FM, but added: “Listen, I’ll take a job, if it’s going.

“And I’ve never found out where it came from or anything like that,” she added.

“But radio is something I’d love to get into, don’t get me wrong, and I suppose as a lip-syncer, what’s the chances when I don’t actually speak for a living?”

The 28-year-old comedian has amassed more than 400k followers across her social media accounts where she recreates iconic moments from Irish celebs through the years.

The social media star has previously mimicked Nadine Coyle's passport fiasco as well as imitating moments from Joanne McNally and Vogue Williams' podcast.

Before she took off on social media, Kayleigh was a primary school teacher, teaching senior infants but it was her father who encouraged her to go all in with comedy, telling her in 2023: “Maybe now's the time, Kayleigh. There's no time like the present”.

She has spoken previously to Magazine+ about how the impressions began by “complete accident” during lockdown when she became “obsessed” with similar comedy skits.

“I am quite a routine person, so I’d run in the morning, teach for six hours online, and then do a video every day at the same time, just to keep a structure to my day,” she said at the time.

“I take on every role. I’m the producer, the editor, the creator; I’m picking the music, the clips, everything is all on me. Sometimes it looks like I just get in front of the camera and do a clip, but there’s so much more background to it,” she says. Thankfully though, “it’s all very fun.”

When it comes time to get to work, Kayleigh first selects her next target, perhaps a funny clip of a celebrity she stumbled across or a suggestion from a fan.

“I try to touch on a lot of genres and interests, but I also know what people want from me. I always want to make sure I don’t offend anyone, and there are some people I would never do because maybe they have different things that I know I would end up exploiting and I wouldn’t want to.”

If inspiration doesn’t strike, “there’s the trusty Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally,” she laughs, as videos where she takes off the podcast duo have amassed hundreds of thousands of views.

2FM recently invited members of the public to apply for presenting roles following the departure of a number of popular presenters from the station.

Doireann Garrihy, Jennifer Zamparelli, The 2 Johnnies, and most recently Donncha O’Callaghan have all left in recent months.

In a post on their website last week, the broadcaster said: “RTÉ is seeking expressions of interest in presenting single or double header roles on RTE 2FM.

“RTÉ 2FM’s primary purpose is to provide relevant speech, music, entertainment and sports programming for younger audiences.

“We are creating a long list of presenters – refreshed every two years – who would appeal to a 15–34-year-old audience.

“When a presenting role becomes available a shortlist will be created from the long list using a weighted criteria.”

“RTÉ 2FM is committed to providing feedback at the shortlisting stage. Piloting may be required when making final selections for the schedule.

“As RTÉ 2FM has presenting roles available, we invite you to express your interest,” the post continued.

“If you believe you have the personality, experience and skill set to present music and entertainment programmes for younger audiences and love music then email, [email protected]. You must be over 18 to apply.”