Rylan Clark: ‘I’m finding a new me’

After bursting on to our screens a decade ago, Rylan Clark became a ‘national treasure’. But last year the TV personality disappeared. Here, for the first time, he talks about his rise to fame, his breakdown and recovery – and why he will always love Barbara Windsor

At the end of 2021, Rylan had his teeth knocked out. During two operations under general anaesthetic, then a third under local, his teeth, £25,000 veneers which had become both a trademark and a punchline, were hammered, then chiselled away. “New teeth,” he smiles, his grin now modest, “New hair, new start,” and then he frowns, “New me.”

Neither of us were expecting the interview to go like this. Rylan (born Ross Clark in east London – his mother moved the family to Essex after homophobic bullies fractured his skull when he was in his early teens) was intending to talk about his charming new podcast, Ry-Union, his latest project in a series of jolly presenting gigs that began after his appearance on X Factor 10 years ago and really never stopped. “I started off as the joke,” he glitters, “and I’m still laughing.” We were expecting a hoot, is what I mean. We were expecting to chuckle through stories of his unlikely stardom, the cosy place he holds in the heart of the British public, the way he ascended from comedy figure to national treasure over the course of a decade, but he’s had a very bad, no-good year, and though he was not expecting to talk about it, having not yet explained its depths to most of his friends, suddenly there we are.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3FwRMHA