I cut off my narcissist mother for 15 years. Then, when she was 80, I called her

Estrangement between parents and children is increasingly common and is thought to affect one in five families in the UK. Reasons given for estrangement vary but typically involve abuse, unaddressed mental health issues, ideological symptoms or substance abuse.

Here, Sara*, 57, tells how she had no contact with her mother for more than a decade – and what happened when they reconciled.

I’ve always had a very difficult relationship with my mum. She is a narcissist and she was always verbally and psychologically abusive. Nothing I ever did was good enough and to this day she has never paid me a single compliment. She told me repeatedly that I was so ugly, no one was going to marry me, I was so stupid and I’d never do anything in life. It’s always been like that.

As a child, I could see