‘Succession’ Logan Roy Actor Brian Cox Opens up About His ‘Horrendous’ Birth: ‘I Brought Half Her Womb With Me’
On Succession, Logan Roy doesn’t have much love to spare for his family. In real life, the actor who plays him, Brian Cox, is quite sensitive. Cox recently wrote a memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, in which he opened up about his childhood in Scotland. Not that he remembers his birth, but Cox was aware of how much his mother suffered bringing him into the world.
Cox was a guest on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast on Jan. 18 to discuss his book and Succession. Host Terry Gross asked Cox to elaborate on his mother’s difficult childbirth, so he did.
Brain Cox’s mother suffered major complications during childbirth
Cox was born in 1946. Hearing about his birth as he got older, Cox has nothing but sympathy for his mother, Mary Ann Guillerline.
“It was a horrendous thing for my poor ma,” Cox said on Fresh Air. “She was the one that really suffered. When I came into the world, I brought half her womb with me as well at the same time. It was a struggle for her and she was quite ill. She’d had several miscarriages before me. She was 40 when I was born, or coming up to 40. It was horrendous, it was a horrendous birth.”
‘Succession’: Logan Roy’s got nothing on Brian Cox’s mom
Logan Roy rules Waystar Royco with an iron fist, and his family just the same. He’s never had to withstand what Guillerline did, without even complaining.
“Of course, the whole thing about that sort of working class thing is you just put up with it,” Cox said. “There was no complaints. I remember my first wife, we lost children, we lost twins and my mother came to stay and my mother had this expression which was ‘Oh, we’ve all dropped babies.’ So this is like a common thing. Miscarriage wasn’t something that was unusual. It was a process that women horrifically went through. My mom was part of that.”
Brain Cox’s mother continued to suffer medical hardships
Cox elaborated that he was a breech birth. Growing up in Dundee, Scotland, medical care was not what it is today.
“I came in ass first,” Cox said. “It was a miracle because I did have the cord wrapped around my neck. What I felt was, I was the other way around as well. Obviously I was heading towards the birth canal and I thought there’s no way I can get through here so I have to turn around and went the other way. Weird thing.”
Cox remembered his mother sharing the story of his birth with him. He also remembered seeing her undergo further medical treatments throughout her life.
“I kind of got it when I was really quite young,” Cox said. “I think my mom told me eventually. She’d been ill and she came home briefly but she was never the same. She had electric shock treatment so a lot of her short term memory had gone. Long term memory was fine so she did tell me about the birth.”
