Vicky McClure decries ‘disappointing’ question women repeatedly get asked

‘Most people wouldn’t ask a friend,’ the ‘Trigger Point’ actor said of imposing query

Vicky McClure has said that it is “disappointing” that women who do not have children are still often probed about when they will have a baby.

The Line of Duty and Trigger Point star married her long-term fiancé, the producer and writer Jonny Owen, last summer in Nottingham. While she has a close relationship with Owen’s daughter, Katie, McClure is often asked when she is having children of her own.

In a new interview, McClure, 40, said that it shows how “backward we still are” that women are frequently asked this question when men aren’t.

“Most people wouldn’t ask a friend that question,” McClure told The Times.

“I don’t know what the fascination is, because it’s so personal. And would you go up to somebody in the street and ask? But we all know the difficulties and we all know the choices. Why would it be in any way connected to what I do for a living?”

“It just shows how backward we still are . . . I’m not surprised [I get asked] but it’s a bit disappointing and a bit lazy,” she said. “It’s just a bit boring for me, to be honest.”

Elsewhere in the interview, McClure discussed being awarded an MBE by the King for her services to drama and charity last month.

She founded the Our Dementia Choir in 2019 after her late grandmother Iris was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and found comfort in music. The choir is made up of a group of people who are living with dementia.

Vicky McClure receiving her MBE at Windsor Castle in December (PA)

McClure has since said she was awestruck to receive the award, since it was something she could have never predicted.

“If you’d have told me when I was a young woman starting out that I’d be at the palace receiving that kind of recognition off the King, I’d have said, ‘Absolutely no chance.’”

When McClure married her longtime partner last year, fans were excited to see that Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar, her fellow stars of BBC crime procedural Line of Duty, were present at the celebrations.

The Our Dementia Choir performed for McClure and Owen at their wedding. McClure previously led a BBC One documentary on the music group, which explored the link between music and dementia.

Vicky McClure and her husband Jonny Owen (PA Archive)

After receiving her MBE, McClure told PA news agency that the Our Dementia Choir had played at the O2 and the iconic Cavern Club in Liverpool.

“We are breaking boundaries now and it is making a lot of noise and helping people realise that they shouldn’t feel so scared, because they are looking at these people and they are living well and thriving, not just sat in a chair doing nothing.

“People still have lives and still have things they want to achieve, and that’s what the choir are all about,” she said.