Graham Norton says being stabbed was ‘the most formative thing that ever happened’ to him
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Graham Norton has revealed that being stabbed in 1989 was “the most formative thing that ever happened” to him.
The popular talk show host made the comments in an interview with The Guardian.
“It gave me real perspective on life and what mattered,” he revealed.
“Before that I was at drama school, caught up in the search for success. I went back to drama school and people were slamming doors because of the roles they got and I was like: ‘Uh, I nearly died. I’m just really happy to be alive.’
“Now if I get worried about something, I can put it into perspective,” he continued.
Graham Norton also revealed that ‘no fuss’ was made over his tendency to wear his sister’s dresses as a child.
The Irish television personality also opened up about his experience of growing up Protestant and gay in County Cork in Ireland. He revealed that he used to wear his sister’s dresses at home as a child for a period of time and “there was never any fuss about it”.
“Looking back, I think, wow, that was really quite modern of my parents. When I was four, my mum sent me off to school with the advice, ‘If anyone teases you or makes fun of you, don’t react.’”
It gave me real perspective on life and what mattered.
He praised his mother for her words of wisdom, noting that bullies “want a reaction”.
“It meant that this weirdly effeminate little kid didn’t get bullied the whole way through school,” he added.
TV star has opened up about being stabbed on a number of occasions in the past.
This is not the first time Norton has opened up about his stabbing in 1989. In 2003, he said: “I didn’t even realise I’d been stabbed in that classic way, because your adrenaline is pumping.
“I looked down, and I saw all this blood.
“I lost a bit over half my blood. So it was very touch and go, I think.”
Graham Norton (Jeff Spicer/Getty)
He later said the stabbing was like “a waking hell”.
“Everything dissolved into sheets of white, and waves of weakness swamped over me,” he said.
Last month, he told The Mirror that knife crime happens because people don’t understand the consequences and have “a lack of imagination”.
The talk-show host believes knife crime happens because ‘people have been dehumanised’.
“People are losing their lives and equally, the stabbing people, their life is destroyed for nothing, for this stupid thing because they couldn’t get their heads around the consequences.
“If you had the empathy, that level of imagination to think it through, that the person you’re stabbing could be a brother, friend, sister, mother or father, you wouldn’t do it,” he added.
“Somehow people have been dehumanised.”
He also said he believes knife crime is down to economics.
“It’s about people with nothing and if you’ve got nothing to lose, that’s a really scary place to be.”
