Jimmy Carr says he is still not over the death his mother more than 20 years after her passing, and says at the time he “couldn’t imagine anything worse than losing her”.
The comedian, 51, was very close to his mum Nora, who died from pancreatitis in 2001 aged 57.
Opening up about his grief while a guest on The Development by David podcast with David McIntosh, Carr 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.”
His mum and dad Patrick - known as Jim - moved to England from Limerick, Ireland and raised him along with his two brothers in Slough.
He has been estranged from his father since Nora's death and said in November 2021 he hadn't spoken to his dad in 21 years.
Carr - who released his latest Netflix special Natural Born Killer, earlier this week - went on to liken 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,” he concluded.
