THERE ARE FEW taboos left in the world of parenting these days. The stigma that was once attached to discussing subjects like perinatal depression, gender disappointment, not bonding with your newborn from the off, miscarriage and IVF is all but gone, thankfully.

Openly admitting you have a favourite child, however, remains very much a taboo subject and is not something parents are ever supposed to say out loud. That is, of course, unless you’re Katherine Ryan.

The outspoken comedian recently dared to say the quiet part out loud, admitting that she does indeed have a favourite child. “I can say it. Violet’s my favourite. She’s the firstborn daughter,” Ryan told Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast.

Ryan, who raised 17-year-old Violet largely by herself after separating from her father, also has three other children: Fred (3), Fenna (2) and Holland (9 months) with husband Bobby Kootstra.

“[And] I think people don’t like that,” she continued. “That’s a very provocative thing to say as well. I don’t worry about it hurting the other kids’ feelings, because guess what? Those are nepo babies.

Violet is my favourite,” she added, because her siblings will get to “go to private school, grow up with a dad. Life’s not fair. She’s my favourite,” to which McCall replied, “That makes sense in a way, doesn’t it? They have privileges she doesn’t.”

You can imagine the reception Katherine Ryan received in the comments section after that admission. She was accused of damaging her children by making such an open statement. Something the righteous commenters were quick to declare they could never, ever do. But if we’re being honest, was Ryan just verbalising something that all........

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