Graham Norton reveals his childhood lie to skip school that led to major surgery

Graham Norton had surgery to remove his appendix at a young age.

Cork television star Graham Norton says a lie he told so he could skip school led to major surgery for an issue he didn’t really have.

Norton’s acting skills were apparent at a young age as his claim to have a pain in his stomach brought him all the way to having an organ removed when he was seven or eight years old.

Speaking on Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable, the actor and presenter said he didn’t want to tell his mother and their family doctor he was faking his illness in case he got into trouble for the lie.

“We go to the doctor, he’s examining me, I go, ‘ow’, and he said to go and sit in the waiting room. I’m thinking, this is awful, he’s in there now telling my mother there is nothing wrong with me, I’m going to get in such trouble,” he said.

“I come back in and he says, ‘you’ve got something called appendicitis and so you’ll be going into hospital to have your appendix out’.

Now I’m thinking I’m really fucked because either I have an operation that I don’t need or I tell this doctor that there is nothing wrong with me and I’ve got two very angry adults in the room.

Instead, he committed to the lie and had surgery to remove his appendix.

“You’ve got to commit I always feel and that’s the mistake other children make. They don’t commit to their lie. I was keeping people employed,” he joked. He said he kept the secret for 50 years.

“I honestly, only very recently, confessed this to my mother,” he said.