Mrs Brown's Boys actress Fiona O'Carroll opened up to Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show about her struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said she felt 'lost' at the time after her splitting from her husband Martin Delany and being stripped of many "hats". The proud mam said she applied for RTE's Hell Week to try to rediscover herself.
She said: "Covid has an awful lot to answer for. I probably wasn't in a very good place at the time. I felt like I needed a purpose.
Read more: Mrs Brown's Boys actress Fiona O'Carroll breaks down as she opens up about marriage split
"You're living in that fight or flight situation. I think during Covid there was a lot of fear, the fear of the unknown. What am I going to do now?
"You get used to wearing so many different hats I suppose. I separated three years ago. That was very difficult. I had chosen to take a year out of work to spend some time with my children. That year happened to be the year that Covid started. I had all these great plans. That just didn't happen.
"The first time round it wasn't so bad. It was lovely to be at home with my children. The sun was shining. There was no travelling. Then, all of a sudden your family are all over the world. You can't see them. You can't see your friends. Your home with your four kids. Your ex-husband is locked down in Portugal so my kids weren't able to see their father.
"Then, I was having to home school four children. They are great boys. Three of them are on the spectrum and that's been hard over the years. Covid was difficult.
"I went through a tough time and I think the hard part of that was that I had no choice but to go through that in front of my children. There was nowhere to hide. They had to watch me go through that.
"Over the years you wear many hats, especially in this industry. You tend to wear many masks. You hide a lot because you have to. You have the mother hat, the sister hat, the wife hat, the actress hat. I think Covid stripped me of a lot of those hats.
"I was no longer a wife. I was no longer a sister because I didn't see my brothers. I was no longer a daughter because my father was on the other side of the world . I was no longer an actress because I didn't have a job. I lost a lot of family members during Covid too."
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