JONATHAN WALTER HAS spoken openly about the loss of his mother as a young boy and his previous difficulty in confronting those feelings as an adult.
The former Ireland international gave a courageously candid interview on Friday night’s Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy about his mother’s passing when he was just 11 and detailed the impact it had on him growing up.
“It hits you because I don’t speak about it a lot,” he said. “I was my Mum’s little boy, so [she] was my world. Then you go off to senior school or secondary school in England and you’re sort of lost in a way.
It becomes a taboo subject. I signed for Blackburn when I was 16 or 17 and I moved home. So you’ve gone off on your own, but, really, I was a little boy. I was still lost.
“You don’t know anything. I’m not the only one who goes through it. There are plenty of children that go through the same.
“She was a lot to me and it’s only really in the last couple of years that I can speak about it more. It became a bit of a taboo subject.
I think it’s changing now. I’m trying to get my kids to discuss it with me. But it became a taboo subject and you didn’t really talk about it. I think we’re all guilty of it.
“The more you speak about it the better it is.”
The former Stoke and Burnley striker went on to explain how an interview with football journalist Henry Winter helped him face some unresolved emotions, allowing him to come to terms with his grief.
“He caught me by surprise. I never really spoke about my Mum. I just don’t. He caught me off guard and I sort of broke down to him.
“I was telling him things that I went through my whole career – I was telling him things I was ashamed of… I went through everything.
“It was a big relief. So, on the back of that, I did a couple of other things and it made me feel great. I’m no different to anyone else. It’s great to speak about it.
“The past year has been hard. We’ve had other things going on in the family as well. I’m still coming to terms with it.”
You can watch the full interview with Walters here.
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here: