Katherine Ryan: I wanted to go to work two hours after giving birth
But her husband talked her out of going on The One Show
Katherine Ryan wanted to go on The One Show just two hours after she gave birth.
The workaholic stand-up had to be talked out of fulfilling her booking on the BBC programme by her husband Bobby Kootstra – but she says she now regrets saying no.
It happened when the comedian gave birth to her third child, daughter Fenna, six months ago.
Speaking to Joe Wilkinson and David Earl on their Chatabix podcast, Ryan said: ‘When my daughter was born I was asked to work that evening. And I almost went, because I just had her at home and I felt fine, and I was like "Well, I’ll just bring her to The One Show".
‘I had a special to promote. I thought that would be funny and I can do it. I felt fine but my husband was like...
‘It was my third baby, and Bobby and I went to a party with her five days later. We went to Jimmy Carr’s Christmas party and we brought the baby and that was fine.
‘We could have done it. I’m kind of pissed off that I didn’t do it. I should have done it.’
Ryan also didn’t take much time off work before giving birth – recorded episodes of The Masked Singer, in which she was Pigeon, when she was eight months pregnant.
She also said there were challenges in balancing family life with her career.
She told the podcast: ‘You can have it all, just not at the same time.
‘There’s a time and a place for everything. Right now, I’m going to have to choose every day. So I’ll turn down work, which I hate doing, and then my career will suffer a little bit. Or I’ll go to work and then my kids will suffer a little bit because you get different kids if they’re raised by someone else or a babysitter.
"They do want to be around you. Even when they’re bigger they like to know where you are and it’s comforting for them to have you at home.’
Ryan also has a son Fred, two, and Violet, 14, from a previous relationship.
She turned 40 on Friday and revealed that her teenage daughter delivered the perfect birthday putdown: ‘You’re starting to die’.
Published: 2 Jul 2023
