'Being a single mother was not a struggle'
Comedian also talks about freezing eggs, Shania Twain and podcasting
Katherine Ryan has spoken about how being a single mother was not a struggle for her, calling it a ‘wonderful decade’.
The comic raised her 14-year-old daughter Violet alone and said that those days were possibly ‘the best years of my life;
‘I don't think being a single mother explicitly was a struggle,’ she told Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast. ‘ Being a single mother is fantastic and rewarding.
‘You know that you can't rely on anyone else so you just do it and you do it without resentment, because you don't have an example of another adult who isn't doing it and you don't have to consult with anyone. You know exactly where you stand, and you have this unique life experience.’
The 41-year-old comedian also said she may freeze some of her eggs so she can have a baby after her touring days are over.
Ryan has had a consultation about the process, as she wants another child but is ‘not in a position professionally’ to afford any more time out from her career – having beenafter raising her two youngest children Fred, three, and Fenna, 20 month.
‘This is the timeline that women have to navigate,’ she said.
‘A dad, if he wanted another baby, could just have one now. But I’m about to go on tour for about a year and I’m very hands-on looking after them for a year afterwards I breastfeed them, I [also] sleep with them.
‘So professionally, I’ve just taken three years to do that, twice, plus lockdown in front of that. So I was like, what should I do in this time? Because I can’t even think about having another baby, I’ve decided, for like a year.
‘So I thought maybe I should freeze some eggs in this year.’
Ryan also spoke about hoping to become Shania Twain’s friend when they both appear as judges on the new season of Canada’s Got Talent.
The comic said: ‘I don't know if she's going to like me. She seems really cool, but I sent her a DM and she did not reply. So I don't know. A lot of these people don't manage their own social media so I don't know if she wants to be my friend.’
And she revealed she was a very late convert to podcasting, having launched her successful Telling Everybody Everything show four years ago.
‘I hated podcasting for about a decade, she said. ;Like, why do all these guys have these radio shows where they just, wank each other off for three hours? I didn't get it, I hated it. The last thing I wanted to hear was men speaking without an edit.
‘Then I learned very quickly that, oh, these podcasts are actually very funny. They're very well produced and I realised how wonderful podcasts are and what an opportunity it is to have a conversation with your audience. […] I’m so lucky that I started my podcast on a whim in lockdown, because it's where I found a real nice community for myself.’
Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time is available on all podcast platforms
Published: 2 Aug 2024
