reason

Ralf Little got emotional as he candidly opened up during the latest episode of Will & Ralf Should Know Better

Death in Paradise star Ralf Little fought back tears as he shared the heartbreaking reason he doesn’t have children.

During the latest episode of Will & Ralf Should Know Better, Ralf, 46, and Will Mellor decided to face their fears, from dangling on a trapeze and tackling fatherhood to the ultimate horror of performing stand-up in front of a Glasgow crowd.

At the start of the show, Will, 49, pointed out to Ralf: “I think I’ve actually done something that you would find more frightening than any of that. What I’ve done that I think you’d find more frightening… is have a child.

“Yes, yes, actually commit to something, commitment. I have had two kids and brought them up. So, to give you a little taste, I’m taking you to a place, it’s like a charity set-up, where dads can go and learn how to be good parents. What to expect from a baby, how to be a parent” to which Ralf admitted: “This my living nightmare!”

At the charity set-up, Ralf was asked “what’s the worry about children” to which he admitted: “It’s a lot of work, innit? I bought a bread maker once and I loved making that bread, but after a little while, I was like, I’ll just unplug it and put it under the cupboard. You can’t really do that with babies, can you?”

The leader of the charity set-up then asked: “Ralf, what is it that you’re most afraid of?” to which the former Death in Paradise star said: “I’ve lived a lot of my life having a mentality where there’s nothing I can’t walk away from.

“It’s actually terrifying to me, the idea of loving something so completely and irreversibly. I can’t walk away from it intact. That’s terrifying to me.”

Following the charity set-up and being given a baby doll to look after, it made Ralf think deeper about why he doesn’t have children. He said: “Yeah, it’s been a funny old day. Just in general for me” to which Will added: “I can see it threw some questions into your mind that you weren’t expecting. I could tell from your reaction that you were a bit like maybe there is a reason a bit deeper why I haven’t had children.”

To which Ralf emotionally admitted: “For sure. My parents were fantastic with us and did the best that they could. But their relationship broke down really in a really difficult way and that was very difficult for us.

“You know, there’s no way of putting this that’s not blunt, but, you know, they had three kids and an idyllic family life and then one of the kids was alive one week and dead the next.

“Everything, their entire lives crumbled right in front of their eyes from that moment on. It’s like, you know, you can’t protect them.”

Ralf then fought back tears as he composed himself and continued: “My mum was really… my mum was really protective of us. Really protective.

“And it happened anyway. It happened anyway because you can’t wrap your kids in cotton wool and protect them 24-7. Like, it’s a lot. And it’s only when I’m forced to sort of say these things out loud that I realise quite what a lot it is.”

Tragically, when Ralf was just nine-years-old, his sister, Ceri, then 14, fell 150ft to her death from a cliff during a family holiday to Cornwall.

Ralf has said that the tragedy was partly to blame for his parents’ divorce and deeply affected his other sister Rowena – but it made him push himself academically and in extracurricular activities.

Will and Ralf Should Know Better is available to watch on Channel 4 and 4oD, as well as U.

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While it may not be at the top of your packing list, health experts tell passengers to pack a tennis ball in their hand luggage when flying long-haul for one reason

Packing a tennis ball isn’t to cure mid-flight boredom, it’s actually for something much more important.

If you’re already packing your bags for a holiday, or starting to think about where to jet off to in the summer, make sure you remember to pack a tennis ball.

According to health experts, they can help avoid stiffness or aches while in the air, as well as helping to enhance circulation. They can be used by gently applying pressure and rolling it up and down the thighs, legs, or even shoulders mid flight.

If you’re prone to feeling a bit groggy and sore after a flight, this handy trick might just do the job – and it won’t take up too much room in your carry on bag either.

READ MORE: Cheapest month of the year to travel – and when to book for the best deals

Osteopath Tracy Hannigan urged all passengers to pack one and said: “A tennis ball is small and light and can help you to apply soothing pressure to points you might otherwise not be able to reach,” as reported by Metro, and added: “‘A tennis ball is small and light and can help you to apply soothing pressure to points you might otherwise not be able to reach.”

If you do struggle with stiffness, the expert also recommended stretching regularly to help, noting that the side of the neck can be extended by “turning the chin towards the armpit and gently applying pressure to stretch the opposite side of the neck.”

She said you can also stretch your lower back in your plane seat by crossing your legs and leaning forward as if you’re “trying to reach down to the crossed-over foot with your elbow.”

Another of Tracy’s hacks is to use a hand towel and put the tennis ball in the middle of it and “roll it like a sausage” so when you apply pressure with the ball, it’s “easier to position” and will also help to keep it in position.

Flight attendant Cher, who has been working on aircrafts for five years, has also shared some of her own travel hacks, including urging people to put important items in carry-on baggage rather than checked suitcases. She even recommends these essentials be kept in the personal bag that sits at your feet.

She warned: “It is not uncommon for somebody to mistake your carry on as theirs and take it off. I have seen this dozens of times.” Cher advises packing underwear, a toothbrush, toiletries or “anything you couldn’t go a couple days without” in this bag. She noted: “The best thing in aviation is to basically prepare for the worst.

“Flight attendant bags are marked up to the nines with custom tags so we can identify them as ours. I would recommend doing something on your bag that will prevent somebody else from confusing it as theirs.

The most prestigious board ever put together.

That is how the president of the United States, a man convicted of fraud, described his new team focused on international relations. A team that does not include representatives from our closest neighbors — Mexico and Canada — but did save room for leaders accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Now, we do not know whether President Trump created his “Board of Peace,” which this week held its first meeting, specifically to undermine the authority of the United Nations. But we do know that the president has pledged $10 billion in tax dollars to the board’s mission while still owing the U.N. half that amount in back payments. We do not know whether Trump, who is indefinitely the leader of this peace board, intends to relinquish that power after he leaves the White House. But we do know he is still trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Whether the “Board of Peace” is the most prestigious panel ever assembled is debatable. What is not debatable is that it was conceived by an adjudicated sexual abuser who is referenced in the released Epstein files some 38,000 times.

That is not my take.

That is simply what is happening.

Which is why the president encourages his supporters to ban books and reject journalism. He doesn’t want voters to pay attention. He doesn’t want voters to understand his actions.

Ten years ago this month — after his Nevada caucus victory speech — Trump said, “I love the poorly educated.” And his reliance on this base is why, over the past decade, he and other conservatives have purposely misconstrued the term “woke” as a catch-all slur toward progressive and far-left policies. It used to mean “aware” and “informed.” The term was not born out of modern politics but rather the need to understand the history of the social economic systems we all are living in. The alternative is to be blindly led by an unscrupulous leader most concerned with his own well being.

Being “woke” is why the Boston Tea Party happened in 1773; it is why Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in 1776; it is why Republicans formed the Wide Awakes to help get Abraham Lincoln elected in 1860. When voters understand the context in which decisions are made, we are better equipped to address shortcomings at the ballot box and in our daily lives.

Trump’s self-proclaimed love for the poorly educated has nothing to do with progressive policies or college degrees and everything to do with whom he can convince to believe him. And by making “woke” an insult, Trump and other conservatives have politicized the very tool necessary to help the country fulfill its promise: information.

This threat is the reason his administration attacks, and even arrests, journalists; the reason he refers to reports he doesn’t like as “fake news”; the reason he fired the labor statistics chief after an unflattering jobs report last year. He’s waging a war on information.

The reason 2025 marked the worst nonrecession year for job growth since 2003 isn’t that the country was “woke.” It’s because of shortcomings in leadership.

When Trump returned to the White House, he made lowering the U.S. trade deficit a key component to his economic policy. In 2024, the deficit was $903.5 billion. In 2025, it was $901.5 billion — and America’s families paid $230 billion more for goods because of his yo-yo tariff policies.

He told his supporters that other nations would be paying for the tariffs he enacted — obvious nonsense to anyone who attended a day of Econ 101. And we know that as a result of his reckless and ignorant policies, farmers in particular suffered. It’s not clear whether that financial burden was a consideration when the Supreme Court on Friday declared the president’s sweeping tariffs to be illegal. What we do know is before Trump entered politics, his businesses filed for bankruptcy six times — so perhaps he was never the economic savant he claimed to be.

Just as the saga of the Epstein files reveals he is not the protector of women and young girls that he claimed to be.

Just as his recent attacks on the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 14th Amendments show he was never the defender of the Constitution he took an oath to be.

Acknowledging the laundry list of untruths tied to his promises and presidency is not political or a symptom of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” It’s simply having information: the one thing that helps voters understand why things are the way they are. The one thing the president hopes his supporters never wake up to see for themselves.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow