Erin O'Connor
English model
Appearing on a Paris catwalk in a beard.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Shitting myself in New York last November. I was wearing cream trousers. We were going to see my son Matty and his band, the 1975, at Madison Square Garden, and I was walking through the streets, enjoying the sunshine, pretending I was in some kind of video – throwing my hat into the New York sky like Mary Tyler Moore. I saw a couple of people turn and look at me. Now, although I’m not famous in New York, whenever Matty’s there I do get recognised as his mum, so I’m smiling and waving at them. I went back to the hotel room and bent over to get something out of the suitcase, and my husband said: “Do you realise you’ve shat yourself?”
The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 December 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →
Tom Allen
British comedian
I did a corporate gig early in my career, and they opened the buffet in the middle of my set and everybody left.
Recently, sending a negative text about a person to that person.
Kellie Maloney
Retired boxing manager, promoter and politician
In my early days of transitioning, I used to come to London and meet for a drink with a group going through the same thing. I used to wear a full wig, and one night I’d drunk too much and fell asleep on the train, and my wig slipped off.
More from Denise Welch
View profile →Stopping being such a helicopter parent and worrying about these grownup children’s lives. It drives me mad. And I am having therapy. If I could stop thinking that I should be their first port of call for everything, it would free my head up a bit.
Now, because of my marriage and because since September 2019 I’ve been free of clinical depression.
Funny, annoying and kind.
My husband, Lincoln, for getting sober with me. He turned his own life around to turn mine around. We didn’t do AA, we anchored each other.
I was a waitress at a holiday camp. On a Wednesday afternoon all the guys used to pee into the rice pudding and we had to serve it to the customers.
The people I hurt when I was suffering with addiction to alcohol and cocaine.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Andrew O’Hagan, Omid Djalili, Fay Ripley, Julian Lloyd Webber, Eleanor Tomlinson, Layton Williams
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