Irvine Welsh reveals he never had children because he feared he would be an absent father

Irvine Welsh has revealed he never had children because he feared he would be an absent father.

The Trainspotting author said he had never felt mature enough to settle down with a family and wanted to travel the world instead.

Edinburgh-born Welsh split from his second wife Beth Quinn in 2017 and their divorce has now been finalised.

He admitted he would like to have a grown-up son or daughter now but did not want to go through the process of bringing them up.

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The 62-year-old also said he doesn’t think he would have been such a successful writer if he had been a dad.

He added: “It’s never been an interest for me. I always felt too young to have kids.

“I’ve always wanted to travel and move around and stuff like that.

“I thought ‘If I’m going to do this properly I’m going to have to be around and I don’t know if I can be around and I’m going to hate myself if I’m not’.

“It would be nice to have an adult kid now but not the whole process of going through the growing-up thing.

“I would probably be a s**t dad, I think I would be absentee, it wouldn’t be fair and I wouldn’t want to be absentee so that would set up a bit of a dilemma.

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“It’s not something I’ve actively considered and I don’t think I would have done what I did if I had.

“I don’t even have cats or dogs or plants, don’t trust me with anything living.”

Welsh was speaking to actor friend Tamer Hassan on the Family Business podcast.

In September Irvine revealed on Twitter that he had met his girlfriend during lockdown and enjoyed a more “old fashioned courtship” as they couple got to know each other.

He tweeted:“Have been enjoying a Covid romance that blossomed into a relationship. Was great to be able to take things slowly, with distanced walks and talks, before it got more intimate. More like an old fashioned courtship.”

Irvine Welsh admitted he would like to have a grown-up son or daughter now (Image: Daily Record)

The writer added that the pair had bumped into each other in the street before arranging to meet for social distanced coffees.

The author was a heroin user in his twenties before finding fame as a writer.

Trainspotting, his debut novel about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, became an international bestseller after it was published in 1993 and led to the film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor.

He has said the character of Renton, played by McGregor in the film, was loosely based on himself.

Welsh met Beth, who is 23 years his junior, when giving a talk to a creative writing workshop in Chicago and they married in Dublin in 2005.

His first marriage to Anne Antsy ended in divorce in 2003. They wed in 1984 in a tiny register office in Anne’s home town of Croydon, Surrey.