Award-winning comic and Eurovision commentator Graham Norton almost died earlier than he grew to become well-known after a terrifying ordeal again within the Eighties.. The host of the favored Friday night time chat present on BBC One, who returns on this weekend’s Eurovision Music Contest as host on the BBC, was stabbed and mugged and left to die on the road one night in London. The star, by then solely in his mid-20s, mentioned he reached out for a stranger’s hand as a result of he didn’t need to die alone.

“I didn’t know I used to be dying, I didn’t determine it out till later, and that is so not me however I bear in mind saying to this little previous woman ‘will you maintain my hand’?”, reported The Mirror after Norton opened up concerning the ordeal on a podcast final 12 months. “And it was a flicker on her face of ‘oh do I need to maintain his hand’ however she did and she or he held out her hand. I held her hand and I feel that’s one thing so deep inside us and it motivates a lot of our life that we don’t need to die alone.

“I feel so many selections in our lives like having a companion and having kids are about not being alone whenever you die. It’s about having somebody to carry your hand.It gave me a very good angle to danger and to failure as a result of in case you consider the worst-case situation, no failure compares to dying. I’m not recommending anybody do it however for me it was a really helpful and highly effective life lesson.”

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The 61-year-old, whose actual identify is Graham William Walker, was born in Dublin in 1963. Regardless of holding ambitions to be an actor, Norton turned to stand-up comedy within the early Nineties and appeared on the Edinburgh Fringe Competition dressed as Mom Teresa in 1992. His efficiency was so spectacular that it’s believed he truly fooled some into considering it was the actual Mom Teresa showing on stage.

He appeared in numerous TV exhibits all through the Nineties, together with in style Irish sitcom Father Ted and chat present The Jack Docherty Present. Norton’s expertise led to him being supplied his personal present on Channel 4, and by 2007 he was supplied the prospect to host The Graham Norton Present, which has proved a significant hit with hundreds of thousands of viewers over the previous 15 years. The present truly began on BBC2 earlier than shifting throughout to BBC1 in 2009.

Norton has been internet hosting the UK protection of the Eurovision Music Contest since 2008, having taken over presenting duties from Sir Terry Wogan.

Norton is overtly homosexual, and in 2015 he advised The Mirror that he struggled to search out love as a result of “work comes first”. He additionally admitted that it will be simpler to search out love if he was straight.

The chat present host mentioned: “However as a result of I’ve labored so onerous to get the place I’m, I proceed to prioritise my job over different bits of my life. That’s in all probability very silly, one thing I’ll stay to remorse. After I look again at my romantic historical past, I’ve to say it’s taken second place to my job. Maybe I don’t anticipate my amorous affairs to final. Or it may simply be that I’ve a low consideration span.”

He even mentioned that he could have discovered coping with relationships simpler had he not been homosexual. “I’ve a concept,” defined Norton.

“I feel there’s one thing about having a male companion that makes it harder. This can sound sexist however that doesn’t imply it’s any much less true. If I have been a straight man, my feminine companion would have a job within the eyes of society. She can be the mom of my kids, my hostess, the individual on my arm at crimson carpet occasions. She would have an outlined operate.

“However that’s not the case in case your companion is male. Each man – irrespective of how younger or fey – has one thing of the alpha in him.

“So all of the issues they thought they’d take pleasure in about going out with me change into loathsome in the long run as a result of they haven’t earned it for themselves. More and more, that places a pressure on the connection.”

Norton’s earlier companions embody trend guide Trevor Patterson and music advertising and marketing guide Andrew Smith. Since splitting from Smith in 2015, Norton has been guarded about his relationship standing and never spoken publicly about any companion, regardless of rumours that he has been courting a crew member he met on the set of his BBC1 present.

Norton’s web price is reportedly nearly £30m, in line with Superstar Web Value, and he earns greater than £700,000 a 12 months from the BBC. He additionally bought a manufacturing firm that he arrange within the late Nineties to ITV in 2012 for round £17m.