Dawn French says racism towards Lenny Henry was so bad that police lived in their house

Comedians were married between 1984 and 2010

Dawn French has recalled the racist abuse her ex-husband Lenny Henry was subject to while they were married.

The comics were married from 1984 to 2010, and French said she “couldn’t believe the continual, casual, insidious racism that happens in his life”.

Speaking on Mariella Frostrup’s show on Times Radio, French said she was “so angry” about the “big giant ‘let’s smear s*** on your door and try to set fire to your house’ kind of racism”.

Revealing the lengths they were forced to go to for their safety, French added: “For a while, we had the police living inside our home when some people had scratched really racist slogans on every panel on two cars outside our house.  

“And now I have a mixed race daughter and I see what she experiences, I see it. But she’s very strong and she can sniff a racist at 200 yards and takes a nice steep swerve to the left.”

Lenny Henry and Dawn French with their daughter Billie in 2005 (Rex)

Henry has dedicated much of his time over the years to fighting against prejudice. He recently said that the next head of the BBC should be someone who “recognises the importance of diversity, inclusion and representation”.

He also told Louis Theroux’s Grounded podcast earlier this year that he was often left out at teenage discos, with some girls choosing to not dance with him because he was “a black guy”.