Graham Norton has said he had a "gorgeous summer" in West Cork and admits he feels sorry for young people during the pandemic as he is "quite happy to sit in and stare at a wall".
The 57-year-old chat-show king revealed how he found living in the UK to be "quite stressful" and says "it has been lovely" being back in Ireland.
Speaking on Friday night's Late Late Show, Norton said: "It was lovely. I had such a gorgeous summer. London was quite stressful so as soon as I could I got out of there and quarantined for two weeks and never really stopped to be honest.
"You are in the middle of nowhere, you don't see anyone anyway. It has been lovely. It is things like having the dogs, the sea, and trees. They don't know that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket."
"It's young people I feel sorry for because I'm quite happy to sit in and stare at a wall."
"If you are young...your whole life is geared around the weekend and your friends and it was lovely weather, of course they were out... it was hard and it was stressful," he added.
Norton also opened up about the loss of his beloved Labradoodle Bailey, who he affectionately called 'Bailey the Bear'.
"He was 15. He breathe his last in West Cork. He was Bailey the Bear, he had a lovely last day down drinking his fill out of the stream. He was on his last legs, he wasn't very mobile or anything.
"He had a seizure, and I took him up to the emergency place up in Cork and we said goodbye. I was so glad we got him back here.
"It was dramatic and awful and yet anyone who has done this knows, that moment when you get to give your dog that gift is kind ... it's kind of the greatest act of kindness you can do for that animal."
"I know this place in a way that I will never know anywhere else"@grahnort tells Ryan why the books he writes are set in Ireland.#LateLate pic.twitter.com/D1gsL5jN5v
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 2, 2020
Home Stretch, Graham Norton's third novel, is out now.
