She’s one of the funniest women in showbusiness but Katherine Ryan’s rise to fame has been anything but easy.
The Canadian comedian, 42, admits she purposely tried to get pregnant with her first child, Violet, when she was aged 23, after being diagnosed with lupus – because it can make it difficult to get pregnant.
She told the Guardian: ‘When you’re first diagnosed with something – I was quite ill at the time – you go to the worst-case scenario. My rationale with my boyfriend was, we’ve had so many ups and downs, if we haven’t split up by now, we never will. Now I see how long life is, and how many things can change. But at 23, I couldn’t see it.’
Katherine escaped her childhood home in Sarnia, Ontario to move to Toronto when she was aged 18, where she had a great time, by all accounts.
She had worked as a podium dancer at the Playboy mansion and in Hooters but explains despite misconceptions, it was not a topless bar.
Katherine Ryan was ‘quite ill with lupus’ when she decided to try for a baby aged 23 – pictured with her eldest child Violet, 16, pictured in July
While on maternity leave from her job in sales, 25-year-old Katherine would look after Violet in the day and try to break into standup in the evening, taking her daughter with her
In October, Katherine welcomed her newborn daughter in just 45 minutes – she is now a mother of four
She later moved to London with her boyfriend, which she didn’t like because due to the cost of living making her ‘immediately poor.’
After splitting from Violet’s father, whose identity has never been revealed, she endured something of a white knuckle ride to become successful as a single mother.
Katherine said she realised pretty quickly that her partner wasn’t going to be ‘beneficial to [her and Violet], financially or logistically.’
She decided to make her life in London work because she’d ‘had a youth already’ and wanted to ‘get serious’.
Moreover, she didn’t want to return to Canada as a single parent, saying, ‘there was a time when I felt shame about it.’
While on maternity leave from her job in sales, Katherine would look after Violet in the day and try to break into standup in the evening, taking her daughter with her.
She is now happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby Kootstra, who she reconnected with later in life and married six years ago
Katherine and Bobby are also parents to Fred, three, daughter Fenna, two, and Hoilland, three months – she has never disclosed the identity of Violet’s father
She said female standups were ‘discouraged from being feminine… I think we were doing our best just to be invisible or emulate what the boys were doing. Bookers would say, “Women will be jealous of you, men will be distracted by you.” But that wasn’t true.’
And it seems her drive and determination has paid off.
Katherine’s standup special First Born Daughter is available on Sky on Comedy. Out of Order season 2 is on Comedy Central.
She is now happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby Kootstra, who she reconnected with later in life and married six years ago.
Now a mother-of-four, Katherine’s eldest child Violet is now 16 – and she and Bobby are parents to Fred, three, daughter Fenna, two, and Hoilland, three months.
