Barry Keoghan Said He’s Still Haunted By His Late Mom “Screaming Through The Letterbox” Begging For Money Amid Her Heroin Addiction As It’s One Of The Last Times He Heard Her Voice

This article mentions substance abuse and addiction.

Barry Keoghan has always been open about his difficult childhood, with his mom dying from a heroin overdose when he was just 12 years old.

Three years after moving in with his relatives, Barry's mom died. Recalling the heartbreaking moment that he and Eric were told the sad news, the star previously told JOE: “My nanny and my auntie told us. It wasn’t a nice day; it was the worst day of my life. I was about 12, but there was something in me that I just took it, and it made me stronger.”

Discussing how she fell victim to a heroin epidemic that was sweeping his hometown of Summerhill at the time, Barry told Louis: “My mom, she was lovely. She was gorgeous, almost like six-foot, dark hair, just beautiful. Like, every lad was chasing her, and this thing caught her, like many families.”

“I remember laying in bed and [my mom] screaming through the letterbox, just wanting money, and we had to lay in bed and my aunt and granny was like: ‘Just don't go down,’” he recalled. “That haunts me. That was one of the last times I heard her, like, her voice, and that stuff haunts me.”

And Barry admitted that growing up in so many different homes has left him with “trust issues,” sharing: “It's like, how can you trust anything? When you get attached to a family and then: ‘Oh, you’ve got to go [to another foster home] now.’”

Barry also discussed the way that his upbringing has been treated as a “pity story” in the media, insisting that he doesn’t speak about it to get sympathy from people. Instead, he hopes to inspire other children who may be in a similar situation to the one he was once in.

And Barry hasn’t forgotten his Summerhill roots amid his rise to fame, with the star telling Louis that he hopes to open a youth center there with Olympic boxer Kellie Harrington, who is also from the area.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.