Conan O’Brien has paid a glowing tribute to his parents after they both recently died.
The 61-year-old TV star lost his dad, Dr Thomas O’Brien, on December 9 at the age of 95, and his mum, Ruth O’Brien, on December 12 at the age of 92, and O’Brien has now paid a heartfelt tribute to them both.
He told the Boston Globe newspaper: “I think what my mother and father saw in each other was that they were kindred spirits. They were incredibly hard-working and disciplined.”
O’Brien observed that his dad “was the dreamer” in their family.
The talk-show host explained: “My dad was the one who was saying, ‘I’m off to Peru with a change of clothes in my briefcase to try and launch this website for a hospital there high in the mountains.'”
On the other hand, O’Brien said that his mum – who was a lawyer – was more of a “realist”.
He explained: “My mum was the one who really saw to it when we were little kids that we were fed and our clothes were laid out, and that we got to our dental appointments and medical appointments. She’s doing all this mum stuff, and when that was done, rushing into a phone booth and becoming Ruth O’Brien, second woman partner at Ropes and Gray.”
What’s more, O’Brien recalled that his mum always wanted to “fix” other people’s problems.
He shared: “If anyone was unhappy around my mum in a 50-mile radius, she thought it was incumbent on her to fix the problem. It did not make her life easy, but it was very much a part of her Catholic drive – that ‘I have to be of service to people.’ And good God, she was.”
