Barry Keoghan has given a rare insight into fatherhood, revealing how it’s forever changed him.
In a new campaign video for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Irish actor, discussed the state of children’s social care, drawing on his experience growing up in the foster care system — and, more recently, his experience as a dad to 2-year-old son, Brando.
After U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy pointed out that, coupled with his mother’s death, his time in the system must have “weighed very heavily” on him, the actor admitted that “it does.”
Barry lived in 13 different foster homes before moving in with his grandmother. His mother died of a heroin overdose when he was just 12 years old.
“As I’ve got older and I had my own son, I realised that it was such hard work for her [Barry’s mother] and my father,” he told Larry.
“And luckily there was a good care system there, which is massively important,”
Barry, who shares Brando with ex-girlfriend Alyson Sandro, went on to tell the British politician that he wants to work with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to “change” the state of children’s social care.
“You can use your platform and profile to shine light on things, and anything to do with kids and care, I’m always wanting to help and shine a light on it, and get attention to it,” he added.
During an interview for The Louis Theroux Podcast in September 2024, Barry acknowledged insensitive comments online trolls had recently posted.
“If I didn’t have tough skin or the strength to have, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” he admitted.
“Of course, (my childhood is) going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from.”
