Jimmy Carr: Comedian reveals he is still not over the death of his mother Nora 20 years ago

Comedian and TV host Jimmy Carr says he is still not over the death of his mother 23 years ago.

Nora died in 2001 from pancreatitis, when Jimmy was in his mid 20s. Now he has revealed his feelings in a podcast.

Appearing on The Development by David with David McIntosh, Jimmy 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.'

He added: “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.”

As reported by Mailonline, Jimmy's parents Nora and Patrick -  known as Jim - came to England from Ireland, settling in Slough and raising Jimmy and his two brothers. The comic has been estranged from his father since Nora's death. 

Also on the podcast Jimmy, mentioning his new Netflix special Natural Born Killer, reiterated his belief that comedians should not apologise for jokes, even if some people deem them offensive.

He said: “There's a bit on the new special. You can't go around apologising for jokes. So what I'm gonna do the next time I get cancelled, I'm going to say the day of the cancellation, I'm going to say, [mock childish voice] ‘I'm sorry’. The people who are offended will say, ‘You don't really mean that apology’ and I'll say ‘So you're saying I can say something and not mean it?’ Now you're getting it.”