The question
What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
An English teacher said, “You’ll never make anything of yourself.”
The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗
I was born in 1964, in the most working-class area of Liverpool, so the N-word was bandied around a lot.
“What is Seann Walsh and how do we make it die?” It was online, thankfully. It wasn’t in Sainsbury’s.
People have said, “I wish you would die.” That’s the stark truth of being in the public eye – people dehumanise you and say ghastly things.
A headmaster said I was a complete washout and I would never be any good for anything.
In a different sense, I’ve helped to try to resuscitate a dead man.
Less time on my phone.
The children. As a mother you are constantly worrying whether you’ve done the right thing.
Lack of empathy.
Clearing up someone’s sick – it was on police duty.
It was reading out loud, but no longer. (I am dyslexic.) I was encouraged by my husband to do a speech for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped me gain my confidence, and the fear disappeared.
Mariella Frostrup, Maggie O'Farrell, Dervla Kirwan, Jason Manford, Clive Myrie, Rita Wilson
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