Jimmy Carr has revealed his mother’s death left him with an unhealthy relationship with food and how the fear of also dying young drives his obsession with dieting and weight.
The comedian, 53, was incredibly close to his mum Nora who tragically passed away aged just 57 after a battle with pancreatitis in 2001, with the funnyman previously admitting he was ‘still not over’ the loss.
Speaking on The Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast, Jimmy said: ‘My mother didn’t look after herself, was maybe a little bit overweight.
‘She was unhealthy and then she got sick and then she died. And that’s not lost on me in terms of, I’m very particular about trying to keep myself trim.’
‘I have something like – I don’t think I have an eating disorder – but I certainly have a strange relationship with food’.
Asked if he exercised a lot, the father of two replied: ‘Probably not as much as I could. I’d like to do more, but it’s finding the time.’
Jimmy added: ‘The golden rule is you treat other people as you would want to be treated. There is a platinum rule, which is you treat yourself as you would treat other people.
‘And it’s almost always: I’m not doing any of those right. I’m not sleeping, I’m not exercising, I’m not eating right. And it’s a spiral you get into with these things. So taking care of yourself is incredibly important.’
Jimmy’s parents Nora and Patrick – known as Jim – moved to England from Limerick, Ireland and raised Jimmy and his two brothers in Slough.
The comic has been estranged from his father since Nora’s death and revealed he hadn’t spoken to his dad in 25 years.
The TV star, who has two children with producer wife, Karoline Copping also said how his mum’s death was the turning point in his relationship with his father.
‘That was the catalyst, I think, although, in maybe a more reflective tone, we talk a lot about the teenage transition and those teenage years that we go through in puberty.
‘I think there’s something else that happens that we don’t really talk about, and I think we will be talking about it more, which is around the age of 24 for women, 25 for men, there is a thing where the frontal lobe completes.
‘There’s something that happens physically. And I think there’s something that happens where you kind of just become yourself. And I think maybe around that age was when everything changed for me. My belief in God went. Everything changed around those years. And part of that was we had a falling out. And that’s fine.’
Jimmy said: ‘She was unhealthy and then she got sick and then she died. And that’s not lost on me in terms of, I’m very particular about trying to keep myself trim’ (pictured 2005)
Asked if he exercised a lot, the father of two replied: ‘Probably not as much as I could. I’d like to do more, but it’s finding the time’ (Pictured last month)
Now a father himself, Jimmy said: ‘It’s about being involved, being present, it’s not so much about not giving kids screens. It’s about not having them yourself.
‘It’s about being present when you’re there with them, playing with them’.
Jimmy told fellow comics Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe on their Parenting Hell podcast: ‘I haven’t seen my father in 21-years and you know the line, ‘My mother’s dead and my father’s dead to me’ – which sounds very cold until you meet the guy. I can’t have that guy in my life.’
Writing in his memoir, Jimmy Carr, Before and Laughter, the comedian wrote: ‘I might seem urbane, but I’m the son of two immigrants from Limerick who moved to Slough (they moved from a s*** town to another s*** town, I guess they knew what they liked.’
Jim took offence at that particular passage and threatened to sue his middle son for defamation as well as calling on Limerick council to revoke the ‘Certificate of Irish Heritage ‘given to his Jimmy in 2013 unless a public apology was made.
The TV star, who has two children with producer wife, Karoline Copping also said how the death of his mother in 2001 marked a turning point in his relationship with his father (pictured)
Now a father himself, Jimmy said he was determined to do things differently than his own dad: ‘It’s about being involved, being present’ (Pictured with wife Karoline Copping)
Last year comedian Jimmy opened up about the death of his mother, saying he is still not ‘over it yet’.
Speaking on The Development by David podcast with David McIntosh, he said: ‘I lost her when I was about 26. I don’t think I’m over it yet. Grief is the price we pay for love.
‘I was so close to my mother, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than losing her. The benefit of losing her is a sense of freedom, pushing the f**k it button.’
Jimmy likened a person’s death to the time before they were born, saying there isn’t any difference between the two.
He said: ‘You get mortality, in a way. We die and we’re the lucky ones because we get to live. Mark Twain said it brilliantly, I wasn’t alive for billions of years before my birth and it didn’t inconvenience me in the least.
‘This is why life is so special, it’s this little shaft of light in the middle of it all.
‘It’s not an easy thing to lose a parent. Grief, we don’t talk about it enough. Society is set up to kind of hide it away.’
