Graham Norton has recalled how his parents were considered “radical” in the Sixties because they did not stop him from wearing girls’ clothes to go out.
The BBC presenter and author, 60, described his younger self as a “very effeminate little boy”, but praised his parents for letting him “fly my freak flag”.
In a new interview published today (Tuesday 13 June), Norton recalled that he was “kind of aware” of his effeminate nature, adding: “I knew that was my job, not to get bullied. Because it was so obvious.
“I remember my parents sending this little fey thing – I wore my sister’s clothes, I still wet the bed – off to primary school, aged four. They must have thought, ‘What’s going to come back? Some blood on a stick? This is all that remains’.”
Speaking to the Guardian, Norton continued: “I think [my parents] knew that if they tried to stop me [from wearing girls’ clothes], it would become a thing.
“These were Irish parents in the Sixties. In a small town in Ireland, I think that was kind of radical that they didn’t fight any of it. They let me fly my freak flag.”
Norton’s father William died in 2000. His mother, Rhoda, is 91.
Norton said that while his family had always accepted him, the town of Clondalkin, where he was born and grew up, made him feel stifled.
It wasn’t until his father’s death that he “started to appreciate lots of Irish qualities that I hadn’t appreciated, or I’d dismissed and actively disliked when I was growing up”.
“That sense of community, that idea of people being involved in other people’s lives, I hated all of that [as a child],” he said. “As an adult in that situation, I just found it so beautiful. I thought it was gorgeous.”
In a previous interview with the Radio Times, the chat show host opened up about a difficult moment just after he received a call that his father was close to death.
He had gone to a shop to buy a suit for “what was probably going to be my father’s funeral”, when fans recognised him and asked for photographs and autographs”.
“That’s hard,” he said. “That’s when it’s weird. Normally, it’s just when I’m in a bad mood that people are shocked to find I’m not the ray of sunshine they’d hoped.”
Norton is currently the host of international drag queen singing competition Queen of the Universe, which is in its second season and is streaming on Paramount Plus.
He recently hosted Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool alongside Hannah Waddingham.
