Nigel Owens: struggles with sexuality and the road to self-acceptance

Unfiltered with Oli Dugmore

Unfiltered with Oli Dugmore || JOE Media

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2018

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Arguably the best rugby union referee in the world, known for his witty one-liners and no-nonsense attitude, Nigel Owen’s career highs came with some unimaginable lows. In this vulnerable and moving interview with James O’Brien, Nigel shares his struggle as a young man in rural Wales coming to terms with his sexuality, surviving a suicide attempt at the age of 26, and his journey of self-acceptance that led him to the top of his game.Vote for Unfiltered at the British Podcast Awards! Head to http://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote to vote for the show to win the Listener's Choice Award. Voting closes on 17th May 2018. Thank you!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Unfiltered with me James O'Brien.
0:16.4	My guest this week is the Rugby Union referee Nigel Owens who, he is the best referee on the planet at the moment, but of course he's also very
0:26.2	much in the public eye for his sexuality coming out as gay in I think 2007 and I've interviewed him on the radio before so I've never met him. He is I think a
0:37.3	brilliant and quite beautiful talker so if this doesn't go well, it's on me. We begin with me almost certainly mispronouncing Munith Kerrig.
0:52.0	No, they're spot on us.
0:53.0	Get in.
0:54.0	That is.
0:55.0	You pronounce that, a lot of Welsh people would do, yeah.
0:57.0	If you translate it, it's mountain of stone, is it?
0:59.0	Is it?
1:00.0	And that's what pretty much it is, yeah.
1:01.0	Small village, top of a mountain population about when I was
1:05.0	bought up there about 140 people really very very small knit close community
1:09.2	yeah so everybody knows everybody knows everybody yeah and a lot of the families and when you go back to
1:14.9	that period when I was born my parents and stuff you were coming from families of five
1:20.4	six seven eight nine children and a lot of them stayed in the village.
1:25.1	So my dad was one of seven.
1:28.5	There were two of them living in the village.
1:30.1	My dad, Mencla, still lives there.
1:31.2	There were the families where five or six of the kids have still lived there.
1:33.8	So yeah, still really very close communities.
1:36.2	And is it still like that now or is it dissipated a little bit?
	...

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