Graham Norton claims the stabbing 'changed his life for the better' despite being left for dead in the violent robbery

Graham Norton believes the stabbing 'changed (his) life for the better'.

The presenter of Wheel of Fortune lost 'half (his) blood' in the attack during his drama school days.

Although he was afraid for his life after the incident, it helped put other things into perspective and he stopped worrying about trivial things because just living was enough.

When asked about the worst moment of his life, he told the Daily telegram: 'I was stabbed in 1989. I lost half my blood. I remember the bad moment – ​​because when it happened it's all just trauma – but the morning after I was in the hospital ward and I remember a nurse came to me and said, 'Do you want us to contact record with someone? Would you like us to contact your parents?”

'And in my head I was thinking, “Well, I don't want to worry my parents, but just the same, if I'm going to die, they would probably want to come and say goodbye to me, because they would be annoyed if I didn't tell them.” .”

“So I said to the nurse, am I going to die? And she said, “Eerrrrm…” and I was like, “Don't pause. This isn't the place to pause. This is pretty serious.” So that was bad.

“But the upside was I was probably in my mid to late twenties; I went to the third year of drama school and that put everything into perspective.'

“They did the casting for the third-year shows; there were many people crying and running into toilets and slamming doors. And I just sat there saying, “I'm alive. I'm good. I'm golden.” So in a way it changed my life for the better.”

Graham was attacked twice by someone with a knife while he was still at drama school, years before he became a national star with his role in Father Ted.

But he later had someone pull a knife on him while he was out for a night with friends.

He told this earlier to the Mirror: 'I had someone pull a knife on me again a few years after the first stabbing, but there were people around and it was fine, it was outside a club.

'Someone wanted money and had a knife. And what's so sad about knife crime now is that ultimately everyone is a victim.'

In 2010, Graham wrote for The Telegraph about his stabbing: 'In 1989 I was attacked, beaten and stabbed by a group of boys, who left me for dead.

'To make matters worse, not only did I lose half my blood, but so did my boyfriend: he dumped me the next day, which wasn't the most tactful timing.'

Graham appeared Saturday in the first of eight episodes of a revival of The Wheel of Fortune. It is understood he was paid a 'high six-figure sum' for his role.

It comes after ITV tried to bring it back last year with Alison Hammond as host, but the pilots were not deemed strong enough to be commissioned. The broadcaster's chiefs then decided to make a bold bid to sign Norton, one of the BBC's most popular stars.

Speaking about his new role, Norton said: “I am extremely excited to be bringing such an iconic American show to a new British audience. My very first TV job was a game show on ITV, so this feels like I've come full circle. You could even call it a wheel!'