Ricky Gervais tried not to be a "burden" for his parents in their final days.
The comedian’s mother Eva died before he rose to fame on ‘The Office’, whilst his father Jerry died a year or so later, and he hoped he didn’t give them too much grief in their last days by "complaining" about things.
He said: "My mum died before ‘The Office’. I think my dad might have seen one, the first series, he lasted like a year and a half after. I hope they didn’t worry about me. I tried not to be too much of a burden. I tried not to complain too much about anything. Because of that, I didn’t want to burden them. You don’t want them to feel … You don’t want your parents to worry about you. So when they go, ‘Are you alright?’ You go, ‘Yeah, I’m alright’. You don’t want to go, ‘No, I’m hating life. I’ve got no f****** money. I’m p****** in the sink’. No, I was always happy. They knew I was always happy. It wasn’t like they were sitting around going, ‘I hope he becomes an international comedian before we die.’"
And the 59-year-old star remembers his mother’s pride at his early work.
He added: "My mum saw a little bit of it, on the 11 o’clock show. I remember I went home after the 11 o’clock show and she was sort of proud of me, but embarrassed at the same time. She said to our neighbour, ‘Here’s the one, the one on telly. I didn’t teach him to swear like that!’"
Ricky insisted fame meant nothing to his family and instead says it was more important that he was a "happy" person.
Speaking in a question and answer session with his fans on Instagram Live, he said: "They both knew I was happy, and I always have been. For them, fame would have been irrelevant. Thank you, lovely question to end."