I was badly bullied at Ampleforth, star reveals

James Norton says he sought comfort from a monk at top Catholic school

JAMES NORTON has spoken out for the first time about his experience of being “quite badly bullied” at Ampleforth College, a leading Catholic school.

The actor, who starred in the BBC’S adaptation of War & Peace, has told how he confided in a monk who “became [his] therapist” during his teenage years.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Norton revealed how he “sobbed [his] eyes out” to a monk named Father Peter during his time at the £36,486-a-year North Yorkshire boarding school.

“I got quite badly bullied at school and one of my saviours, one of the people who got me through was a monk called Father Peter, who wasn’t a teacher, nothing to do with the school but he had confession,” Norton said.

“You would go and sit, and I wasn’t a Catholic, so I was able to go and just talk and he basically became my therapist and I just would sort of sob my eyes out.”

Norton, who is tipped to be the next James Bond, recalled the atmosphere at Ampleforth as being a “hardcore-style environment” adding that he had an “odd time” at the school.

“I had some great friends, I made lifelong friends and I had some incredible experiences and relationships with both some of the monks and teachers and pupils and then I had some which weren’t and I think that’s probably most people’s schooling experience,” he said.

An Ampleforth contemporary of Norton’s remembered him as being “a sweet, cuddly, geeky, chubby guy” who “wanted to be cool, but struggled”.

The schoolmate, who was in the same house as Norton, said: “James was a bit of an intellectual, a quiet guy. At Ampleforth there was a thing called ‘looming’, when you try to insert yourself into a friend group, you tag along. James was one of those guys, always tagging along with a group but they didn’t really like him.”

He said Norton was “victimised by his year group”, adding that he was given a nickname he “really hated” which other boys in the house were told to refer to him as to “humiliate” him.

Norton, 34, who read theology at Cambridge University after completing his A-levels at Ampleforth in 2005, said his experience “informed” who he is, explaining he is “hyper aware” of whether anyone around him is feeling “ostracised”.