Dawn O’Porter opens up about the trauma of losing her mum aged just seven years old as she reveals she used comedy to mask her pain

Dawn O’Porter opens up about her childhood after losing her mother at the age of seven, as she reveals she used comedy to mask her pain.

The author and director, 45, grew up in Guernsey before leaving to study acting at Liverpool Performing Arts.

Speaking on The Mail Bryony’s life podcast, she revealed that she moved in with her grandmother after her mother’s death, and later with her aunt and uncle.

“There was a lot of trauma for me because obviously my mother had passed away,” Dawn said.

‘But at the same time I was a happy child. I was the school jester and tried to make everyone laugh, probably to mask my pain, but I was still funny.”

Speaking on The Mail’s The Life Of Bryony podcast, she revealed she moved in with her grandmother after her mother’s death, and later with her aunt and uncle.

Speaking about the loss of her mother, she said: “I lived with my mother, my mother died just before I turned seven and I lived with my grandparents until I was ten. And then I moved in with my aunt and uncle, who became my parents. My dad is great and lives in Scotland, but we didn’t live with him.

‘And so it was, it was extraordinary, but not terrible either. My aunt and uncle had this beautiful house.

“There was a lot of trauma for me because my mother had obviously passed away. But at the same time I was a happy child. I was the school jester who tried to make everyone laugh, probably to mask my pain, but I was still funny.

‘I did terribly at school, failed at everything, was a total disaster, but I remember laughing so much and having really good teenage years.

‘I dealt with it, but there was no therapy in Guernsey in the 1980s.

“It’s not something that I feel like has ruined my life. It gave me extraordinary motivation. It gave me a lot of drive.

“I think when something like that happens to you as a child, you’re given feelings and things to deal with that adults should never have had to deal with.

“And so it brings a lot of emotions and feelings into your body that you grow up with, which is kind of fun in the end. Obviously I wish it had never happened.

“When I look at my life now, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I write for a living, and I put it all down on paper, it comes out all the time.”

During the interview, Dawn reminisced about growing up in Guernsey.

Speaking about the loss of her mother, she said: “I lived with my mother, my mother died just before I turned seven and I lived with my grandparents until I was ten.”

During the interview, Dawn reminisced about growing up in Guernsey

She said: ‘I remember towards the end of my twenties I made five quid, well, do I feed me or do I feed the cat?

‘I discovered there was a local coffee shop selling a muesli bar for £2.60 and the muesli bar was absolutely massive and would really fill me up. So when I was really broke, I just lived on granola bars.

“But I think at the time, especially in Guernsey, it was very ambitious to get drunk. Well, that was the goal. We drank, we drank to get as angry as possible.

‘And it makes me shudder now. When I go back to Guernsey I think: Oh, if those streets could talk. I don’t know anymore what people remember.’

Dawn has had a successful writing and television career.

She first appeared in the BBC documentary Super Slim Me, where she tried to slim down to a size zero using drastic regimes.

She has also appeared in several Channel 4 shows including How to Look Good Naked and Extreme Wife.

In May 2013 she released her first novel, Paper Airplanes, the fictional story of an intense female friendship loosely inspired by her own childhood in Guernsey and has since released many others.

Dawn and actor Chris O’Dowd, 45, have been married since 2012 and tied the knot in an intimate ceremony after first meeting at her 30th birthday party in 2009

Dawn has been married to actor Chris O’Dowd, 45, since 2012 and tied the knot in an intimate ceremony after first meeting at her 30th birthday party in 2009.

In September she revealed that they had recently decided to return to Britain with their two sons after living in the United States for 16 years.

Dawn admitted at the time that gun culture in America is “terrifying” and that she was beginning to find living with young children “really disturbing.”

Have you ever felt like life is a little…too much? Bestselling author and journalist Bryony Gordon is here to leave the shame behind and delve into the messier bits of life. Look for The Life of Bryony wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes appear every Monday and Friday.