Comedian Jimmy Carr described his Irish father as “dead to me” as he opened up on how he hasn’t spoken to him for 21 years.
The 8 Out of 10 Cats presenter’s parents Patrick James ‘Jim’ Carr and his late mother, Nora Mary both hailed from Limerick, before moving to the UK in the 1970s.
After welcoming his first child - son Rockefeller - two years ago, Jimmy opened up about his strained relationship with his father.
The new dad, who welcomed his first child with girlfriend Karoline Copping in 2019, said: "It’s not a secret, I haven’t seen my dad in like 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,” he joked.
Speaking on the Parenting Hell podcast with hosts Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe, the funnyman said that while he wants ‘the best’ for his estranged father, he doesn't want him in his life.
"It’s a weird thing where I’m acutely aware that things don’t always work out.
“I’m aware that sometimes it goes the other way and that can be terrible and there’s no bitterness and there’s no anger there.
"I want the best, I just can’t have that guy in my life," he added.
The new dad went on: "There’s a bit of sadness there and you worry, 'Could something go wrong with my kid?' “You want to kind of prevent that, but it’s hard.
"I think it’s about being a father and being that figure for him but not in any way controlling."
Jimmy’s mother, Nora Mary, died in September 2001 and it seems his relationship with his father ended around the same time.
The comic referred to ‘losing’ his mother and father at the same time but said he was grateful to have other good people around him afterwards.
“I was very lucky because when I lost my mother and father I was around good people and I had enough father figures and mother figures in my life,” he said.
The comic’s parents moved to the UK from their native Limerick before he was born, but Carr previously told how he thinks of himself as Irish.
The star recalled his six week summers in Kilkee, Clare, and said that anti-Irish prejudice “was a real thing” when he was growing up.
