'Now I have to learn how to trust someone else'

Stand-up Katherine Ryan on her family's changing dynamic, her latest tour and getting great ideas for dinnertime with a new food campaign

- LAUREN MORRIS

Performing her stand-up show by night and caring for her children by day means Katherine Ryan is run off her feet. Yet despite driving for hours to make sure she’s home after nearly every gig, the mum-of three admits she still feels overwhelmed by mum guilt.

“It is different touring as a mum. I don’t mean to disparage the male comedians in my industry – some of them are wonderful, hands-on dads – but I don’t see the same level of zigzagging back and forth,” she says. “There’s always going to be guilt.”

Katherine, 41, is just one-fifth of the way through her European tour Battleaxe, but tries to make it home every night so she can wake up to Violet, 15, Fred, three, and Fenna, one.

“I FaceTime them if I’m in Europe but if I’m in the north of England or anything less than three hours away, then I come home,” she says. “There was one weekend where it was raining a lot. I was in Bradford, then Warrington, then Manchester and then Stoke, and there were floods.

“It was a bit silly to be zigzagging back and forth but Fred had his assessments for reception and Violet had her assessments for sixth form. There are things going on. It’s probably not climate-friendly but I drive back and forth because then I can be home in the morning and I can be home for the day.”

The comedian has become a staple of British TV over the past decade, hosting series such as Your Face Or Mine and All That Glitters, and dominating panel shows alongside Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell, and Dara Ó Briain. From popping up on The Masked Singer last year to becoming a new judge on Canada’s Got Talent, Katherine is booked and busy.