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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Ricky Gervais says his nan believed he would ‘die poor’ when he told her of fame ambitions

Ricky Gervais has revealed the searing words his grandmother said to him when he told her as a youngster of his dreams to become famous when he was older.

Rather than be disheartened however, the comedian said he felt that it had “spurred” him on.

“When I was 8 years old, my Nan asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,” he recalled to his 15m followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I said ‘An international superstar’ She smiled sweetly & said ‘You’ll probably die poor in an underfunded hospital like grandad, you ambitious little C***’

“Probably what spurred me on. Cheers Nan,” he concluded the post.

He also shared an image of the sold out crowd at one of the dates on his current Armageddon World tour.

The tour has been a huge success and saw Gervais make history for the highest grossing single gig by a British stand-up comedian, where he pocketed £1.41 million for a show at the Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl on May 6.

In total, Gervais, who has also written and starred in various TV and film projects, is believed to be worth $160 million.

While undeniably impressive, being the internet, some fans felt the need to point out that he isn’t dead yet and his grandparent could still end up being right if he were to somehow lose all of his money.

“Well, she might still end up being right! You never know what the future holds, but yeah, hopefully not,” remarked one person.

“This is probably still true anyway,” concurred a second.

While another seemed unable to process exactly what they were reading, remarking: “Wow [your nan] had such a way with words!”

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