It can be a time of major upheaval for any young child, and it seems leaving home for boarding school was not an easy process for British actor Dominic West.
The 46-year-old, who has enjoyed major success of late with drama The Affair, has admitted that being sent off to Eton was almost as traumatic as losing his parents.
In an interview with the Radio Times, West said: “I got used to the idea of leaving home very young, when I was sent away to boarding school. That had a major effect on me – it was the worst feeling I have ever had, very similar to the grief when my parents died.”
“It’s the same thing, really; you think you’ve lost your parents. I learned to bury the emotional effects of that, and then I went to drama school and had to dig it all up again,” he added.
West, who is currently lending his voice to the Finding Dory movie, is himself a father-of-four. He has one daughter, Martha, with ex-girlfriend Polly Astor; and three other children – Dora, Senan and Francis – with wife Catherine Fitzgerald.
Did you, or your children ever go through a similar experience?
