The question

When were you most embarrassed?

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The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.

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On one of my first jobs, Cold Mountain, I got a wasp in my ear in front of Jude Law. He couldn’t see the wasp so just saw me freak out.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 May 2026 source ↗
Maggie O'Farrell Irish-British novelist
I started stammering badly the first time I was on live radio, on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. When I think about it now it brings me out in a cold sweat.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗
Neil Gaiman Author of fiction, comics and screenplays
The idiocy of going to Skye from New Zealand in April 2020. All of a sudden, I’m turning on the news and hearing myself as an item. I have never been more mortified.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 October 2023 source ↗
I did an interview years ago and, after it finished, I made some passing comment about sex getting better as you get older – and they used that as the headline. The day the paper came out, I was in a restaurant with the family when a woman on the table next to me leaned over and said, in a sultry voice, “I read your article this morning.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 April 2025 source ↗

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