Fiona O’Carroll, Mrs. Brown’s Boys’ star has announced that she is leaving Martin Delany her husband after fifteen years of marriage.
RTE interviewed the actress at 41 who was best-known as Maria Brown, her character on the sitcom.
She stated that Martin and her met at a young age. When I was sixteen, he was all that I knew. And we kinda grew apart.
“We desired different things. He still has a lot love in my heart and I want him to have the best. I believe he also feels that way about me.
BBC sitcom The Split is the latest blow. It has already been hit with criticisms from critics as well as disputes over star-pay and anger from fans after Paradise Papers were published naming actors who had committed tax avoidance.
Empire’s critic wrote a scathing critique of Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie: “Almost avant garde” in its dedication to humor, the film’s cast is pathetically performed and it’s shot in such an inept manner that it looks almost like it was made entirely of winners of competition.
It’s over. Fiona O’Carroll, Mrs. Brown’s Boys’ star has announced that she is leaving Martin Delany, her husband of 15 years.
This graphic shows how a scheme allowed Mrs Brown’s Boys to get around paying taxes
In 2017, it was revealed that Mrs Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll and his family had purchased seven homes in the sunny state of Florida.
The revelation came after three stars of the BBC sitcom were identified as using a complicated web of offshore companies and trusts to avoid paying tax on their earnings, according to the Paradise Papers.
Martin and Fiona, a newly divorced couple were both named. Patrick Houilhan was also included.
They are said to have diverted over £2m of their earnings into companies based in Mauritius, before getting the cash sent back, purportedly as loans.
Three homes, worth £280,000 and £240,000, were found to be registered to Mr O’Carroll and his wife, fellow Mrs Brown’s Boys actress Jennifer, 53.
A fourth, worth £280,000, was registered to Fiona, 37, and Martin, 44.
These are the last two names of Brendan’s sons Eric, and Danny.
According to Panorama, the BBC also revealed that Mrs. Delany permitted some of their money be transferred to a Mauritian trust and then lent it back to them.
It is believed that the loans were created artificially to avoid tax. None of the loans were ever repaid. This means they are a source of income which should have been taxed.
The infamous ‘Paradise Papers,’ which reveal how powerful and wealthy protect their wealth overseas, show that accountant Roy Lyness helped set up meetings, leading to actors taking part in the scheme.
Mr Lyness was also behind the controversial K2 scheme, which in 2012 was discovered to be allowing thousands of the super-rich to pay as little as 1 per cent income tax, sheltering as much as £168m in Jersey.
Following the discovery that Mrs Brown’s Boys stars were part a tax avoidance program, angry license-payers called for the BBC not to pay the licence fees.
Life imitating art: The couple play Maria and Trevor Brown in Mrs. Brown’s Boys
Brendan O’Carroll (creator of Mrs Brown’s Boys) and his family own six adjoining properties in Davenport, Florida.
The show also came under scrutiny last year after it was slammed for its backstage politics when two of its actors reportedly quit amid a pay gap dispute.
The actors in question – Damien McKiernan and Gary Hollywood, who play couple Dino and Rory – are said to have discovered they earn less than the rest of the cast – which is largely made up of star Brendan O’Carroll’s family.
MailOnline received exclusive information from an insider stating that MailOnline’s show has a dissatisfying work environment.
‘The show is very Upstairs/Downstairs, with a very clear divide between Brendan’s family and the few actual actors such as Gary and Damien,’ the insider said.
‘The family are all directors of the Mrs Brown’s production company and are always looked after.
‘The BBC let Brendan do whatever he wants!’
O’Carroll’s wife, his sister Eilish, his son Danny and Fiona, have all appeared on the series.
Although he has not disclosed his salary from the show, O’Carroll’s net worth was last calculated in 2013 when it was an astounding £9.98 million / €11 million.
In 2017, however, the stars of the show revealed how they were in debt in the early runs. But in 2019 it was reported that profits at a Brendan O’Carroll entertainment company almost doubled to £584,311 / €643,876 the year before.
The Irish Times reported then that accounts filed by BOC-PIX Ltd show O’Carroll and his wife, Jennifer Gibney, had garnered almost €2 million in dividends from the company over 2017-2018.
O’Carroll also makes much of his income from touring.
She added: ‘There were no major fights, and nobody else was involved but it was a case of not being on the same page any longer.’
Fiona – the real life daughter of Mrs. Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll – admitted she persevered with the marriage after watching her own parents divorce in 1999.
‘I think I hung on for as long as I did because when my own parents broke up, that was very public, and there was a lot of hurt involved there,’ she added.
The couple married in 2006, going on to have four children – sons Felix, Isaac, Eli and Dexter.
Martin, who plays Mrs. Brown’s youngest son Trevor in the BBC show, now lives in Portugal but is understood to co-parent the children and stay at the family home whenever he is in his native Ireland.
Mrs. Brown’s Boys, which has been both loved and maligned since its inception in 2011, is set to air two more episodes over the festive period – despite being plagued with claims of backstage drama and the departure of two cast members.
The actors in question – Damien McKiernan and Gary Hollywood, who play couple Dino and Rory – were said to have discovered they earn less than the rest of the cast – which is largely made up of star Brendan O’Carroll’s family.
And an insider exclusively told MailOnline last year that the way the show is run behind-the-scenes makes for an unhappy work environment.
‘The show is very Upstairs/Downstairs, with a very clear divide between Brendan’s family and the few actual actors such as Gary and Damien.
The Mrs Brown production company is run by the family, who are also directors. They are always taken care of. Brendan was free to do as he pleases with the BBC.