Dawn French opened up on her “furious” reaction to her dad’s death, admitting she “blamed” herself after he took his own life.
The comedian’s father, Denys Vernon French, died by suicide when Dawn was 19. He was 45 years old.
Dawn French on her dad’s death by suicide
Appearing on This Morning today (Thursday, May 21), Dawn spoke about her new book, Enough, which is about a woman contemplating ending her own life.
Speaking to show hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, she said: “She’s thinking of taking her life by the end of that day, and she gives her kids this one day, it all takes place in 24 hours.”
“It is something you have experienced, you lost your father. I imagine that experience has massively informed [the book]?” Ben then asked.
“It definitely has. I need to make it clear, what happened with my dad, who took his own life when I was 19, my dad had terrible depressive interludes in his life,” Dawn replied.
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Dawn on ‘furious’ reaction to her dad’s death
Continuing, Dawn said: “Very different to this woman, who is well, she is mentally and physically well. Which is why it is so shocking to her family… But yes, because of what happened to my dad, I guess I have had a lifetime of processing what happened…,” she then said.
“When I was 19, of course, I was furious, angry, confused, full of grief. As I have grown older, tried to understand mental ill health, which I do understand, you forgive. And then also, I have really thought this subject is something we need to talk about… Not put all this shame, taboo stuff, back in the day, this was illegal, sinful. I am the living proof you can get through something like this. You need to talk about it to understand it,” she then said.
“I wonder how many times over the years, Dawn, you’ve had the conversation with yourself would have been, ‘What could I have said that might have meant that he didn’t do it?'” Ben then asked.
Dawn on ‘blaming’ herself for her dad’s death
Opening up further, Dawn said: “Absolutely. Blame is everywhere around this subject. What if we had known, why didn’t I see? What could we have done? My mum lived with a certain amount of that as well…
“That’s why the more we talk about it, that’s why everyone’s experience is different. Everyone’s reason is different,” she then said.
“My dad was an incredibly engaged dad. A cheerful man. But he had these black dogs, when they came, he took to his bed, they were deep and dark. As kids, we didn’t even know that. What we had was a great fun, dad for most of the time.”
Dawn previously opened up about her dad’s death in a 2023 BBC documentary, echoing what she said on This Morning today.
“A grenade went off inside our family, it was shocking and dreadful, it was the worst thing you could imagine. And I was furious and angry and just dripping with grief about all of it and shock at that age,” she said.
“As I grew up, I started to understand the awful, hellish place he was obviously in, the fight he’d put up for so long and you forgive.”
Read more: Huge backlash as Dawn French appears on The One Show following ‘disgusting’ comments
This Morning airs on weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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