Johnny Vegas lent his support to his ex-wife Maia Dunphy as the presenter paid tribute to her “lovely mum” Helen at her funeral.
The presenter announced on Sunday that her beloved mum had passed away from cancer - just days ahead of her parents' 50-year anniversary.
A large crowd turned out for a funeral mass at Church of the Assumption in Dalkey, south Co Dublin on Thursday morning where well-wishers mourned the mother-of-three, who Maia described as someone who was a “brilliant mother”.
Among the mourners included Johnny, who Maia split from for a second time in 2020, as well as pals Ryan Tubridy and Lucy Kennedy.
Speaking to mourners, Maia said: “I’ll try to keep this brief because one thing that annoyed my lovely mum more than substandard coffee was an unnecessarily long eulogy.”
She thanked everyone for coming to help “celebrate” her mother’s life.
“I don’t know where to begin with my mum, Helen. Everyone thinks they have the best mother and everyone is probably right but some of us are more right than others.
“I’m often aware that I took mum for granted. She did so much for all of us, all of the time but now that I am a mum myself, I think that maybe taking your mum for granted is a sign of a completely safe and happy childhood.
“Everything at home was always lovely. The kitchen always smelled of delicious food when we got home from school… uniforms left on radiators on cold mornings and that’s the thing about having a brilliant mother, you grow up believing that nothing will ever go wrong. And that’s what I want my son to think too.”
Mum-of-one Maia said her mother had a “unique skill of just making things simpler”, adding: “She never felt hard done by”.
She told mourners how she “never pined for things she lost or dwelled on what she didn’t have” and detailed her “glamourous” relationship with husband Tom.
She said the couple “completely adored each other”.
“Mum had to love us, dad, but she chose to love you."
Parish priest Father Liam Lacey described Helen as a “bright and intelligent” woman, who had a “bubbly personality”.
He said: “Helen was bright and intelligent. Much loved by all her family. She was a naturally friendly person and fitted comfortably in any group.
“She had a bubbly personality, and she shared her love and joy with her husband Tom and her children and especially her grandson, Tom.
“See Helen mattered to you in life and her death matters to you.”
Helen Dunphy’s funeral notice said that anyone wishing to make a donation in her memory was asked to send it to the Marie Keating Foundation.
Announcing the news earlier this week, Maia said: “Cancer is a f*cking horror show”.
"Cancer is a f*cking horror show, and I never trot out platitudes about ‘fighting battles’ because it seemingly implies some people don’t fight hard enough,” she wrote.
She said her mother bore her recent illness "with the same stoicism she approached everything in life".
"Those of you who know her well will know how much has happened in these last difficult weeks. But Helen didn’t doubt for a second how much she was loved,” she said.
Maia said that her mother was a “remarkable woman, without pretension and with a very rare self-assuredness that was a testament to all the right choices she made in her life and the acceptance of things she had no control over.”
