I’ve always felt really empowered as a mother
On a dull winter’s afternoon, with the light already gone, I’m talking to Katherine Ryan about her ‘very conservative’ breast implants. Of course I am; what else would I be discussing with the most confessional, disinhibited and glamorous woman in comedy? Over the years, she’s tested out her material both on increasingly ambitious live tours and on TV, including regular appearances on game shows and in the 2020 Netflix comedy drama The Duchess, based on her experience as a single mother in London in her mid-20s. More recently, in the first series of At Home With Katherine Ryan, she invited cameras to dive into her life with her three children and husband, Bobby Kootstra.
Katherine grew up in the Canadian city of Sarnia, on the shore of Lake Huron – with, she adds, ‘the neon green that glows because of the chemicals’. Over the course of almost an hour and a half, I learn that although she isn’t ‘on’ all of the time, she loves making statements that unsettle or shock, while simultaneously appearing to be guileless. Katherine points out that she’s hopeless at casual pleasantries – something she didn’t consider when she moved to ‘the country where small talk is king and nobody discusses their secrets’ – which is essentially what leads to a candid conversation.