Irish comedian Graham Norton has opened up about his experience with an eating disorder and his relationship with food in general, calling it “weird.”
The Cork born chat show host has just released his first novel Holding, a fictional story set in the quiet Irish town of Duneen. The village is normally the source of little drama, but when the remains of community member Tommy Burke are discovered all of Duneen’s dark secrets begin to come out.
Holding centres on the character of obese Garda sergeant PJ, who in Graham’s head, reflects what his life could have been had things worked out differently.
Speaking to the Irish Sun the 53-year-old said, “In my head, that’s who I should be. Not a detective, but fat. Everyone’s got an eating disorder, a weird relationship with food.
“When you talk to people about food, you think, ‘Wow, you’re just as crazy as I am’. In my head, I’m fat, and in reality I would be if I didn’t go to the gym and ate what I wanted to. I don’t know if I’d be Channel 5 documentary size, but I would be large.
“If you were living back in the day, you worked hard to get the food and all the food you got, you ate, because you needed that energy.
“Today, we are running on machines, running nowhere to burn off calories we clearly didn’t need. Everyone in modern society has a pretty odd relationship with food.”
Graham will be in Dublin next week for a Q&A as part of his book tour for Holding.
