A besotted Shappi Khorsandi tells Katherine MacAlister about her journey through the dark times

Shappi Khorsandi is in love. This is only significant because last time we spoke she was heartbroken, a single mum twice over and had given up alcohol, men and going out.

“I called it wilful abstinence,” she laughs.

She was determined to be a good mother, only emerging to tour and keep her comedy career going.

“I had to be totally on the ball at all times and not working wasn’t an option. The responsibility stopped with me. But I’m in a different head space this time around,” she says happily.

Not that the 41-year-old’s personal life ever affects her stage performance, but she definitely feels as if she’s come out of a long dark tunnel and is enjoying the sunshine.

“This tour is a lot of fun. I’m not going to Edinburgh Fringe this year for the first time which means I can enjoy the tour properly without having to stop and write a new show. I just don’t want it to end. “

She met her boyfriend at a corporate do, and hoped he’d ask her out on a date. “Three years later he came up to me after a gig and asked if I remembered him. He’d been in Philadelphia for three years. I had told so many people about him. I told him of course I remembered him and not to go anywhere. So I’m totally in love, which is a bit bonkers. And he’s great with the kids.”

So does she talk about him in the show? “No,” she gasps in horror. “That wouldn’t make for a healthy relationship. There is nothing about our relationship that I want to share on stage.”

And then she changes tack: “The new show is more about standing up for yourself and how I’m not very good at it, but you have to get better when you are a parent. My manager said that I wear my heart on my sleeve but now I can focus on enjoying myself. It’s just taken me five years to learn how. My journey has been horrible but also kind of amazing. It’s amazing to know how you can survive.”

SEE IT
Shappi Khorsandi returns to Banbury’s Mill with her show Because I’m Shappi... on Saturday, May 8.
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