Racists tried to burn our house down when I was married to Lenny Henry
Dawn says ordeal toughened her up
DAWN French has told how the shocking racism she and Lenny Henry endured during their marriage had made her stronger.
The couple, who divorced in 2010 after 26 years, survived an arson attack on their home and had excrement smeared on the front door.
Dawn, speaking as she approaches her 60th birthday next month, dismissed the bigots as “utter t***s”.
The actress and comedian said: “I had to attend to it when people tried to burn our house down and left sh** on the door.
“But although that was hugely disappointing and shocking, you have to get past it. I never thought, ‘Oh, look at me in a mixed-race relationship.’
“I fell in love with a man and he happened to be black and we adopted a mixed-race daughter. “I only realised it was an issue when there was hatred from utter t***s. “Getting sh ** on your doorstep – these things make you steel up a bit and think, ‘Bring it on. I can deal with this’. It was just us living in our time and doing our jobs and being the people we were. It wasn’t brave.”
Others had it worse, she said, adding: “We had a big house and a gate and we could employ people to protect us. Lots of mixed-race couples weren’t so lucky.”
Dawn, who lives in Cornwall with second husband Mark Bignell, is releasing a book next week giving life advice called Me, You. A Diary.
It contains observations about how to create your own happiness. She said: “This is not a self-help book. I can’t purport to tell anyone how to live. All I can do is say, ‘Here are some things I’ve learnt’.” Her desire to write about herself, first with her 2008 autobiography Dear Fatty, was a reaction to an unauthorised biography by Alison Bowyer.
Dawn said: “It was mean-spirited, full of untruths. This woman didn’t get to the people who really knew me, it was old school friends, someone at the hairdresser’s. I had some very dark thoughts about her.”