COMEDIAN and TV star Katherine Ryan may be letting the cameras back into the home she shares with husband Bobby Koostra and children Violet, 15, Fred, three, and 18-month-old Fenna – but she laughs when TV Mag suggests that she’s the next Kris Jenner.
“I wish I could kick back with a martini and collect 10 per cent from each of my kids,” jokes Katherine, 41. “Why do you think I’m having so many of them?!”
Katherine Ryan has opened up about her sex life, plans for more children and how she wants to be the next Kris Jenner[/caption]
Katherine and co are back on screens with a second, revamped fly-on-the-wall show called At Home With Katherine Ryan – and this time the four-episode series is, by Katherine’s own admission, much more “intimate”.
“This is about more than just parenting, like series one, where it was also visiting other families,” explains Canadian-born Katherine. “It basically is a reality show. It’s a real in-depth, all-access, no-holds-barred look at our family, my life and my marriage.”
In typical Katherine fashion, she does not hold back or sugarcoat, even allowing viewers to join in as she and Bobby attend their first ‘marriage coaching’ session where they candidly discuss their sex life.
“I loved our marriage coach,” explains Katherine. “I don’t know why she’s called a marriage coach – I think it was just more of a sporty term for Bobby. It’s less intimidating to a man to say: ‘We’re going to see a coach,’ not a therapist.
“I was surprised to find that I am a lot more prudish about my sex life than I thought. I think when you talk about sex as a greater theme on stage, you have the shield of humour to dance around. You go: ‘Oh, well, I was making a joke!’ But when your husband is sat opposite a marriage coach and he’s like: ‘We had intercourse in the bathroom,’ I was like: ‘Oh God. What’s the punchline?’ There’s no punchline to hide behind…
“So I expected Bobby to be more filtered than I am, but, no, he just really doesn’t give a s**t! But Bobby and I have a really great marriage, a really strong union and I really love him, and I think your job as a stand-up is to hold a mirror up to your audiences’ experiences.
“So if I can do that in another format and help people see themselves in my relationship coaching, that’s a service I like to give people.”
Other moments the cameras capture include Katherine and Bobby clashing over parenting styles and his view that she spoils Violet, as well as Katherine’s worries about heading on a 10-month long European tour to leave Bobby to hold the fort at home as both a dad and step-parent to Violet, Katherine’s eldest from a previous relationship.
“The biggest challenge this year for me personally has been Violet and Bobby’s relationship,” reveals Katherine. “Bobby came into our family when Violet was nine and they got along really well. He was absolutely a positive addition to Violet’s life – but he is more strict than I am.
“He believes in earning privileges, whereas I just lavished Violet with whatever she wanted as long as she was nice to me. That’s always been my line in the sand – if you’re kind and respectful, then why would I not just give you everything you want? And I’ve learned that maybe that’s not the best way to teach someone work ethic and gratitude.
“So Bobby has been a good sounding board for that, but obviously Violet doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like someone telling her that she’s got to empty the dishwasher all of a sudden, and that she should tidy up after herself, and they have clashed in the last year where they didn’t before.
“But Violet’s a ‘TV brat’ – she’s not a real brat, she just draws you in. It’s amazing, Violet’s natural affinity for reality TV.”
That hasn’t stopped some of Katherine’s critics saying that the star shouldn’t have her kids on screen at all.
“I did see last year some people had opinions about that,” she says. “And I love dialogue and being the catalyst for any provocative conversation, so it was good. I’d say they’re largely absolutely right, and it’s something that I wrestle with all the time.
I would never argue with anyone who says that I should keep them off. I get that viewpoint, and some days I wake up with the same viewpoint.
Katherine Ryan
“I have to pull myself back from posting cute photos of them on social media, which I hardly do any more. We’re so proud of our children and want to share them, but I certainly have mixed feelings about how much exposure a child should have on any platform – and I also about the ownership of their image full stop.
“There are people who are now Violet’s age, who are nearly adults, but I’ve seen them as foetuses – their parents shared their scan photos. I’ve seen their ultrasounds, their live birth videos, them in kindergarten… But having obviously created and watched the whole series, my kids are not in it very much.
“I think it’s because I’m mindful of those things that it’s done in a really tasteful way and I don’t feel that they’re exploited at all. It’s something that we might make a decision next year, or the year after, to totally take them off social media, or not put them on the show again.
“I would never argue with anyone who says that I should keep them off. I get that viewpoint, and some days I wake up with the same viewpoint. But, again, it’s so tastefully done that it’s okay.”
Now, Katherine’s keen to make more of the show and says she has no regrets about how fame has changed her – and, crucially, her family’s – life.
Katherine’s Got Talent
The comedian joined the Canada’s Got Talent judging panel in 2024 – and now she’s got her eyes on a role here in the UK.
“I’d love to do Britain’s Got Talent. I think people are ready for edgy comedy again – more of the Simon Cowell and less of the Canadian politeness,” she grins. “I brought them that in Canada and they reacted well.”
But how would she change the dynamic alongside show boss Simon, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli?
“I’d be the best one,” she quips. “I’ve got a taste for making eight year old’s cry…”
“So far I’ve embraced it the whole time,” she smiles. “Violet was a child I kept off social media for 14 years of her life entirely, and now she’s in The Sun for her friendship with [son of Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick] Mason Disick, and she has 30,000 followers on TikTok.
“I don’t love it, but I have ascertained that she has the right personality for it, the right mindset, and she’s impervious to criticism, just like I am. Violet has learned through my example throughout her entire life that some people know us and some people really like us, and some people really don’t – and we all just brush it off either way.
“But it’s something I keep an eye on. I would never encourage Violet to move to Hollywood and become a pop star, and I wouldn’t trot her out to a million auditions, but I think we have just come to accept that we are getting to be a bit of a recognisable family.
“People even recognise the children sometimes when they’re not with me – they’ve been out with the babysitter and people will say: ‘Are those Katherine Ryan’s kids?’
“But everybody has the right personality for it. Looking at the Kardashians as an example, you know how Kourtney seems to not want to be famous and then Kim just really loves it? I happen to have a family of Kim’s. Everyone really likes it.”
EXPANDING THE BROOD
So could Katherine go full Kardashian and add to her brood, especially as the couple – who were childhood sweethearts who reunited two decades later – visit a fertility expert in the show?
“Our journey to parenthood has not been a linear one and I’ve been really happy to always share about the pitfalls of that,” continues Katherine. “I just feel like if we are blessed enough to have a strong relationship, be financially secure and we can still have children, then I’m annoyed that we spent 20 years apart not having children.
“I love having children. You can make people – it’s magic. And I really like the people that I made and would love to have more children, but I’ve been banging on about this since series one and if people had listened to me in series one – Bobby – then maybe we wouldn’t be meeting with the fertility specialist in series two.
“So I’d like as many as we can until it becomes an issue where I can’t spend time with the ones I already have. I think that’s the balance. One more, at least, and then if I felt like I had enough attention or life left in me – because I’m also getting old and tired – then I think I’d like five or six children.
“And I do have a Kardashian mindset, in that when I’m gone, or I’m no longer of interest and I’ve got my little pied-à-terre in Marylebone and I’m alone – an eccentric elderly woman watching musical theatre by myself while Bobby’s inside – it’d be so nice for the siblings to get together and have this life beyond me.”
Maybe she will give Kris Jenner a run for her money after all…
Katherine and her husband Bobby visit a marriage coach in the new series[/caption]
Katherine admits her teenage daughter Violet is the star of the show[/caption]
The star also admits she sometimes struggles with her decision to have her kids on screen[/caption]
Katherine compared her family to the Kardashians[/caption]
At Home With Katherine Ryan returns Monday, February 10 at 9pm on U&W. TV Mag is available for free every Saturday, only in The Sun.
