Brendan O'Carroll first wife REVEALED: Who was Mrs Brown's Boys star's FIRST wife?

MRS BROWN’S BOYS star Brendan O’ Carroll spends most of his time in front of the camera in drag. But while he plays an Irish mammy onscreen he has been married twice and has three children. He wed his costar Jennifer Gibney in 2005 but who was his first wife?

Irish actor, writer and producer Brendan O’Carroll, 63, plays a foul-mouthed matriarch in popular sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Brendan is the creator and star of the hit comedy and dresses in drag for the role.

While critics have slammed the show which started since 2011, it’s struck a chord with many viewers and earned Brendan a small fortune.

The TV personality grew up as the youngest of 10 children in an impoverished Dublin household.

Brendan O' Carroll first wife: He was married to his first wife for 22 years (Image: GETTY)

But now has net worth of £9.4 million, thanks to the show’s success.

Brendan, who dons drag to play Mrs Brown, married his costar and onscreen daughter Jennifer Gibney in 2005.

But before he tied the knot with Gibney, he was married to another woman for more than two decades.

Who was Brendan O'Carroll’s first wife?

Brendan O’ Carroll wed Doreen O'Carroll in 1977.

The pair were married for 22 years and separated in 2002, just as Brendan’ s career was taking off.

Doreen is the mother of Brendan’s three children: Danny, Eric and Fiona, (both Danny and Fiona are also actors in Mrs Brown’s Boys.)

But tragically their first child together, a son also called Brendan, had spina bifida and died just days after birth.

Brendan has spoken candidly about how the death of his son “nearly killed him.”

In a moving interview with broadcaster Gay Byrne he said: "It was absolutely devastating. It tore my heart out. It still does.”

He added: “I had prepared in my mind, the white picket fence, swing in the garden, taking him to the zoo, I had all these things planned, but then that happened, and the plans all went out the window and I couldn't find peace in myself.”

Brendan O' Carroll first wife: He married costar Jennifer Gibney in 2005 (Image: GETTY)

Quizzed about the end of his 22-year marriage to Doreen, he said he regretted the way they broke up.

He said: “I would rather it [the break up] had have happened earlier, that I had been more honest. I was also very arrogant. I thought, 'Well, I can't leave because if I do she will fall apart,' which was terribly selfish and arrogant of me.

"She far from fell apart, she's extremely happy and living with a lovely guy. So I am sorry that I delayed that, I'm sorry that I held up her life. As well as that, I just wish it hadn't happened for the kids."

Doreen Dowdall and Brendan both grew up in the Dublin suburb of Finglas.

They first met at a little Dublin basement club and according , Brendan it was love at first sight.

He recalled the moment in his biography “The Real Mrs Brown.”

He said: “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. She had pierced ears, her head shaved back, a black Crombie coat with a velvet collar, black polo neck, black three-quarter-length skirt, black knee-length stockings and black loafers.

"I thought she looked incredible. I knew then I wanted her to be my girlfriend. She was just so special.”

Brendan O'Carroll first wife: Brendan dresses in drag for the role of Mrs Brown (Image: GETTY)

The pair dated before marrying in 1999.

Despite his desire to have children with his current wife, Jennifer Gibney, the pair never have.

Speaking to The Sun, the Irish actor said: "Jenny doesn’t have children. Over the years there have been times when I would get a bit broody and she did too, but she was also step-mum to my children.

“I would have loved to have seen what a baby from me and Jen would be like and we did say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a baby’, because we love kids.”