RTE viewers have praised Baz Ashmawy after he opened up about his dad leaving him when he was eight on the Tommy Tiernan Show.
During tonight’s show, Tommy’s first guest was the RTE presenter Baz Ashmawy who spoke about growing up without his father, Mohammed Ussri Ismaill.
Baz said that he struggled to know who he was when he was younger
Baz praised his mum for raising him on his own when he was younger
The presenter explained that his dad left him and his mum when he was just eight years old and he spoke about what affect it had on him growing up without his father.
Speaking with Tommy Baz said: “It’s like being in a fight and one of your mates runs off you’re kind of left there looking over your shoulder and going, ‘Am I doing this alone, is that how this is?'”
Baz went on to explain that his dad when to America before he moved back to his home in Egypt.
Before his dad left it was just the three of them in their home and Baz admitted that he used to tell people his dad died.
Baz said: “I remember I used to lie to people and say he died.
“There was a couple of different versions of how he died. It was easier to say he died than to say your dad left.
“I adored him, I thought he was god, I thought he was great.”
BRILLIANT BAZ
The DIY SOS presenter went on to say that he felt very “lucky” to have his mother when he was growing up.
He also explained that he always struggled to fit in when he was in school as he felt like he was missing his identity.
Baz said: “He legged it with a bit of my identity. I had my name and that was it and then you’re trying to figure out who am I.”
He also explained that he once visited his dad and lived with him for two years and asked him why he left.
The presenter explained: “I remember when I met him years later, I was maybe 15 or 16 I had moved to Egypt to spend some time with him to get to the answers and he just went, ‘I don’t want to talk about that right now’ and that was it.
“There was no closure with it and then a couple of years later he passed away.”
Baz went on to say that he thinks his dad didn’t want to speak about it because he didn’t want to be vulnerable.
He explained: “It’s vulnerability, people aren’t able for it. They’re not able to say those things sometimes.
BURNING QUESTION
“A friend said this to me one time, ‘I think there is a day where you lie with yourself and ask what type of dad was I, what type of husband was I?’
“You can avoid your reflection for so long time but sometime you will be stuck there and you’ll have to face yourself and ask yourself these questions.”
Tommy asked Baz how his mother Nancy explained to him why his dad left and Baz said that he felt sorry for his mum.
He explained: “I felt very sorry for her because how do you explain.
“She was able to have the discipline to never bad mouth him, I don’t know how she did it.
“And she said to me, ‘He does love you just in a different way. He’s just not able for certain things and when you’re older you can go sort that’.”
Powerful stuff on the #tommytiernanshow tonight Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s the greatest measure of courage. Such respect for Baz.
— Bronwyn McFarlane (@BronyMcFarlane) January 30, 2021
RTE viewers praised Baz and Tommy following their interview as they said that their chat was “powerful”.
Twitter user Bronwyn said: “Powerful stuff on the #tommytiernanshow tonight.
“Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s the greatest measure of courage. Such respect for Baz.”
Nicola tweeted saying: “Should have done the full hour with just @bazashmawy Not many in this world like him. He is a gorgeous person. #tommytiernanshow.”
Colin wrote: “Powerful stuff tonight on the #tommytiernanshow tonight. Could watch @Tommedian and @bazashmawy chatting all night.”
While Drew also tweeted saying: “Powerful interview with baz @bazashmawy #tommytiernanshow.”
The Tommy Tiernan Show returns next Saturday February 6 on RTE One at 9.30pm.
RTE viewers praised Baz on tonight’s show