Stephen Fry recalls homophobic attack at football game: ‘I was trembling for hours afterwards’

‘There was this furious face that suddenly loomed right in front of me,’ says actor

Stephen Fry has reflected on being subject to homophobic abuse at a football game.

The actor, writer and presenter – who has been married to comedian Elliott Spencer for seven years – was speaking on the Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner podcast when he recalled the moment that he was attacked by a stranger.

He said: “I remember once going to the FA Cup in Wembley and, as I was walking in, there was this furious face that suddenly loomed right in front of me. It was a skinhead and he went, ‘You’re a f***ing p**f, you’re a f***ing…”

“I thought it was a joke, so I went, ‘That’s right, dear,’ and he went crazy. He was coming towards me and his friends started to pull him back… I realised his eyes were genuinely filled with hate and he would have quite happily nutted me and stamped on my head.”

Fry said he was “trembling for hours afterwards”, adding: “It was innocent and pathetic of me because lots of people live in that fear of physical violence much closer to them all their lives. It’s so rare for me that it really was a shock.”

The actor said that he has “got so used to my various manoeuvres of getting my self-mockery in before I can be mocked by others, that when it does come, it is quite a shock”.

Stephen Fry and Elliott Spencer in 2015 (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-IRELAND ALLIANCE)

Elsewhere in the interview, Fry, 64, opened up about his relationship with Spencer, 34.

“Elliott is such a gentle and patient and quiet person, so uninterested in showbiz things,” he said.

“It’s wonderful to know that he regards my job, what I do, with interest, and is proud and pleased when I do things he likes and do well – and he can see they make me happy, but he’s not in any way glamourised by the nature of fame and opportunity and all those things. That gives a great stability to it. It makes me much more relaxed about it all.”

Fry can currently be seen as biochemist Ian Gibbons in The Dropout on Disney Plus and he will next appear in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman on Netflix.