O'Connell announced on "The Late Late Show" on 29 January 2010 that his girlfriend Emily O'Leary was six months pregnant with their first child. The baby was born on 15 April 2010 at the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital in Limerick. He has been named Paddy O'Connell. O'Connell and O'Leary became engaged in June 2012 and married on 27 July 2013 in Auch Cathedral, France. Their second child, daughter Lola, was born in November 2014. Their third child, a son named Felix, was born in November 2017.