Ricky Gervais has hailed “lioness” mums who never stop grafting even when their husbands clock off.
The After Life comic says his whole life has revolved around female leaders, including his late mother Eva.
Ricky, 58, said: “Men worked hard, but women worked miracles because when my dad finished work his time was his own… my mum carried on.
“She couldn’t afford to stop. She kept everything together and she could do anything – plant veg so we didn’t go hungry, sew, even wallpaper.
“And she gave me everything I needed except money. And I learned the best things were free.”
The 58-year-old comedian recently revealed After Life will return to Netflix for a third season (Image: PA)
He added: “I have always thought of women as lionesses, nurturers, protectors and teachers.”
Discussing mental health, Ricky said his dad Lawrence’s post-war generation were never told how to deal with stresses.
“I was the fourth child of an immigrant labourer from Canada. He volunteered for the war, met my mum, got her pregnant and I came along in 1961.
Ricky has described his late mum Eva as a “lioness” who kept the family together (Image: Getty Images/Maskot)
“We had no money and he was a labourer and did odd jobs until he was 70 and my mum was a homemaker and had odd jobs.”
The Office creator says people now have more freedom to express their mental health issues.
He added: “We have made a more caring society. It is now OK to say I am depressed and need help. When I was growing up, I didn’t know a grown man who would say: ‘I’m depressed’.”
After Life was partially inspired by Ricky’s humorous reaction to tragedies like his own mum’s funeral (Image: Netflix)
Ricky previously said his mum’s funeral provided some of the inspiration for After Life, in which he plays a grieving journalist whose wife has died of cancer.
“I have always dealt with taboo subjects but probably more obviously comedically and this is the most dramatic,” he said of the Netflix original series.
“It is tragic but it’s still somehow funny all the way through, but then so was my mum’s funeral – we were crying and then laughing at stuff, the speeches and stuff, and that is what humour is for.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
