Covid-19 coronavirus: Ricky Gervais slams celebrities for lockdown complaints

Ricky Gervais has stood up for healthcare workers on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo / Getty Images

Ricky Gervais has slammed celebrities for moaning about being in lockdown.

The 58-year-old actor is tired of hearing well-paid stars complaining about having to remain indoors during the coronavirus pandemic, but has praised the efforts of healthcare workers, saying they are the real heroes.

He explained: "After this is over I never want to hear people moaning about the welfare state again, I never want to hear people moaning about nurses again. Or porters.

"These people are doing 14-hour shifts and not complaining. Wearing masks, and being left with sores, after risking their own health and their families' health selflessly.

"But then I see someone complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool. And, you know, honestly, I just don't want to hear it."

Gervais joked that the lockdown isn't too troublesome for himself as he's not very sociable anyway.

He told the Sun newspaper: "I didn't go out much anyway, and there's always too much booze in the house.

Ellen DeGeneres recently came under fire for comparing lockdown to a jail. Photo / Getty Images

"It's always been the 6pm watershed for as long as I remember. Obviously, I am looking at the watch."

Ricky also revealed that "all the women" in his family were carers when he was a child.

He said: "I was born in the beginning of the Sixties in Battle Hospital in Reading. And that should have been an omen.

"Having gone by the title, I should have known life was going to be a struggle. And it was - I was the fourth child of an immigrant labourer. My dad worked on building sites all his life, until he was 70. He got up every day at 5.30am.

"Men worked hard, but women worked miracles. Because when my dad finished his work that was his own time. But my mum didn't stop working, women didn't stop working.

"Carers didn't stop working, all the women in my family were carers in some respect.

"I had no money growing up, I didn't have any until I was 40. But I still had everything. My mum, she gardened, she grew, she cooked, she sewed, she knitted, she decorated, she did everything she could. And she gave me everything I wanted except money.

"I also realised growing up that all the best things were free - friends, nature, learning and healthcare. And that's why I gladly pay my taxes. And that's why I clap the NHS."

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