Page 10 - Katherine Ryan press pack
P. 10

18  style ireland


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                           I don’t like endIngs. That’s very Irish, I think.

                               I have a mad optimism about the fuTure



             Joan Rivers in America. Ryan meets a variety   being a female comedian?” variety. When   road. Still, Violet is mostly with her mum. “If
             of self-made millionaires, from the 10-year-  she  was  15,  her parents  divorced  and she   I was a man, I’d be the most eligible guy on
             old Isabella Barrett, who made her money as a   lived with her mother and grandmother,   the planet. People would be like, ‘This young
             star on the TLC channel’s Toddlers and Tiaras,   who wore leather gloves while driving a   man, he raises a child on his own! How does
             to Charlie Mullins, a London plumber with a   Cadillac around town. “I grew up in a   he do it?’ ” Ryan breastfed Violet until she
             Bentley who donates to the Tory party and   matriarchy, so I didn’t even consider that my   was two and a half and takes her to a lot of
             whose clients include Richard Branson and   life might be harder as a woman.” She asserts   gigs. “It wasn’t until later I found out what I
             Joan Collins. In the series, she hangs out at   that, at her level, most male comics are   was doing is called attachment parenting.”
             parties with Prince Albert of Monaco and   “feminist and inclusive”. Her biggest   She still makes the trip back to Ireland
             easyJet’s Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and gets the   professional problem has been with an ex   every year for the Danny Boy karaoke. “As a
             gossip on JK Rowling’s yacht.   who threatened to sue her for making jokes   kid, I was always proud I knew my heritage.
              What has meeting so many millionaires   about him cheating on her. “If that person   Violet went to Ireland before Canada. She
             taught her? “That just when you think you’ve   says, ‘I’ll sue you for the horrible things I did’,   was christened in Saint Fin Barre’s cathedral,
             exceeded your wildest dream, you can do   then you think, ‘You really are a massive   in Cork. It meant a lot to my dad.”
             anything you want, if you keep putting the   prick.’ ” (He didn’t succeed because “you can’t   She hesitates when I ask about her current
             work in.” Ryan feels “so rich” now compared   sue someone for telling the truth”.)   love life. There is a guy, but he moved to Japan
             to when Violet was a baby and “there were   She concedes there are some things that   six months ago. She has used the story in one
             times I could hardly afford to eat”. She has   male comics don’t have to tolerate — for   of her routines. “He’s a comedian, too.” She
             just bought her first home, a garden flat in   instance, male Twitter fans who “can’t   reckons it’s good to date funny men. “They get
             Crouch  End, north London, which she   distinguish between a female comedian and     it. Something will happen in the relationship
             shares  with  Violet,  a  Tibetan  spaniel,  a   a dominatrix”. They send her tweets saying:   and they’ll go, ‘Ah, you can have that.’” Is she
             Yorkshire terrier, a teacup shih tzu and a cat   “Punish me, humiliate me, retweet this picture   still seeing him? “I don’t like endings. That’s
             named Sara Pascoe, after the comedian. She   of me that’s really humiliating.” She shrugs. “I   very Irish, I think. A mad optimism about the
             admits she’s not good at spending money. “If   don’t encounter them in real life. Thank God.”  future. It’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’re
             I splurge, it’ll be a Thai takeaway or a taxi   Currently, her material is more themed on   going to make this work somehow.’”
             instead of a night bus. Those are the things   “the trials of being a single mum”. Violet is
             that make me feel rich.”        now  eight,  and Ryan  amicably  co-parents   How Did You Get So Rich? will air on
              She dislikes questions of the “What’s it like   with her former partner, who lives down the   Channel 4 in January
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