Sharon Horgan talks pain of being separated from her family
During lockdown, many families will have felt the pang of loneliness and longing that comes with being separated from our loved ones for a prolonged period of time, something Sharon Horgan knows all too well, after living apart from her then-husband and children while filming her hit comedy show Divorce in New York in 2016.
The Catastrophe star and co-creator - who recently divorced husband Jeremy Rainbird after 14 years - recalls feeling like she was losing her mind, when she had to spend long periods of time away from her family; something many of us will surely relate to after the events of this year.
'I didn't see my kids for five months,' the writer, producer and actress told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. 'Every couple of weeks I would go back or they would come over. But it was still ridiculously long and painful,' she continued.
Horgan, who lives in London, revealed to the programme that she found it incredibly difficult living in a different city to her now ex-husband and two daughters while writing the acclaimed HBO series starring Sarah Jessica Parker, and that the time away caused her to develop serious mental health disorders like OCD and anxiety.
'I would lie in bed at night and I would feel my heart going and I would think: 'Oh, I am about to have a heart attack,' she revealed. Noting that 'it was only afterwards that I realised it was anxiety.'
In a case of life imitating art, Horgan and ex-husband Rainbird split in 2019, just as the third season of Divorce was wrapping up. The pair share daughters, Sadhbh, 16 and Amer, 12, and continue to be 'best friends' as they continue to co-parent together.
Rainbird - who is managing partner in his wife's production company Merman - told the Sunday Times back in November 2019: 'She is a great mum and a great business partner. And I love her dearly, but at some point in the next three to four months [the divorce] will be finalised.'
Horgan revealed to Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne, that having to learn to co-parent after the split filled her with doubt as to whether she was a good mother, after years of being 'the fun mum.'
'I entirely thought that was my role but that changes when you co-parent,' she admitted.
'Everything changes and you take on a lot more roles and I am much more practical than I was, and I think that is a positive thing,' she continued, revealing that although the split has inevitably been a tricky time for her family, everything 'balances out' and 'eased back' in the end.
We're glad to see that the Irish star is feeling happy and healthy now, and hopefully will have got to spend some quality time with her children, rather than away from them, during lockdown.
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