Eton kids are snob victims too, says Fry

STEPHEN FRY has said children at Eton should not be dismissed as privileged as they are as likely to self-harm as state school pupils in deprived areas.

The comedian, 63, said students at public schools are victims of ‘inverted snobbery’ – and suffer just as much with mental health problems as those in ‘sink’ education.

‘It’s not to say that your life chances aren’t a great deal better if you’ve gone to Eton – we all know that’s obviously the case – but it doesn’t guarantee happiness,’ said Fry (pictured), who has suffered with mental health issues.

‘It’s easy to be inverted in your snobbery and say, “who cares about a load of privileged kids?”’

Privately educated Fry – who visits schools in his role as president of mental health charity Mind – insisted it is too easy to assume that youngsters from wealthy backgrounds are happier and less likely to self harm. Speaking on the Blank podcast, he said: ‘I’ve been to “sink” schools – it’s a horrible phrase, but schools whose pupils are drawn from very deprived and underprivileged areas – and I’ve been to Eton and other expensive private schools to talk. ‘What’s interesting is there doesn’t seem to be a difference in the prevalence of self harm.’ He said that when he was at school he did not remember ever hearing about a child cutting themselves. But he said there was now an epidemic of self-harm, driven by a general rise in unhappiness among the young.