After her parents’ and brothers’ deaths, Jo Brand has been reflecting on her own mortality and spoke of the importance of being able to ‘end’ your own life amid her family tragedy
Jo Brand has lost her parents and two brothers in recent years(Image: Getty Images)
Jo Brand has hinted that she could be open to assisted dying in the future.
The much-loved comic celebrates her 70th birthday next year and has been discussing getting older and what the years ahead might look like following her mother’s death. Joyce died at the age of 86 in February 2021 after contracting Covid-19, alongside some other health complications.
She was reported to have obtained drugs to end her own life when she was in her final weeks, although she didn’t use them.
In a new interview, she told The Guardian: “Now’s the time, if you want things, to get them in place. I think a lot of people say, ‘I really want to do that, but I’ll forget it for now.’ And then they get to a stage where they can’t.”
When pushed on whether she meant in terms of a bucket list, she said: “I mean the ability to perhaps end your own… I know it’s not legal yet, but I think it will be, sooner rather than later.”
In September, MPs rejected the assisted dying bill after a tense vote in the Commons. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill failed to pass, with 286 votes against and 270 in favour.
It would have allowed terminally ill people in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to seek an assisted death, subject to approval by doctors and legal professionals.
To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.
Jo says it’s a matter of time before it is pushed through and highlighted the importance of the campaign, which is back in the spotlight following the death of pioneering presenter Esther Rantzen, one of the most prominent public figures advocating for the reform of legislation.
She also her dad and brothers Matt and Bill, in 2016 and 2021 respectively, after both were given cancer diagnoses.
Jo has supported organisations in the past like Dignity In Dying, which fights for legal reform around end-of-life choices.
She spoke of her concern about living in a care home after witnessing male staff’s “appalling” behaviour torwards adults with learning disabilities after working in a residential home when she was younger.
She was fired after making complaints, which she says were not investigated.
“That was in the 70s. Are they that different now? Who knows?” the star went on. “I can’t imagine I can persuade any of my family to get interested in looking after me.”
She wrote about coping in her new book Decline and Falling Over.
“So yes, I’m not terribly good at grief, because I’m not terribly good at acceptance, either – I don’t think I’ve done that yet at all,” she wrote.
Speaking about her father’s dementia in 2025, Brand said he “began to deteriorate very gradually” which was noticed by his neighbours.
“He would leave his front door open all night, he would hit cars in the car park when he was trying to drive, that sort of thing,” she explained, before adding that he was moved into a care home “which he loved”.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
