Racists tried to torch our home, says Dawn French as she talks of abuse she suffered during her marriage to Lenny Henry

Dawn French has spoken out about the racist abuse she suffered during her marriage to Lenny Henry, revealing that her house was nearly burnt down in an arson attack as the couple slept.
The 56-year-old star, said: ‘It was massively shocking to me. Someone put an oily rag through our front door and tried to burn us down. Luckily I woke up and smelt it, otherwise I’m not sure we would be here.’
Dawn, who has a mixed-race daughter Billie, 23, with Lenny, 55, is concerned that racist attitudes have not changed in 30 years.

Racism: Dawn French revealed she and ex-husband Lenny Henry were victims of an arson attack

And she believes that her daughter and ex-husband – who recently found himself at the centre of a race row after a UKIP candidate said he should leave Britain to live in a
black country – are experiencing racism by stealth.
The comedienne and actress said: ‘It’s the little snidey comments or things people think it is OK to say, a kind of gradual erosion that I find particularly dangerous.’
The pair, who split in 2010 after 25 years of marriage, have previously spoken of other shocking abuse they suffered as a mixed-race couple.
They were once targeted by members of the Ku Klux Klan who smeared excrement on their front door and doorstep and daubed graffiti on their walls.
Miss French made her comments on Friday evening’s BBC Radio 4 Front Row show while promoting her first solo touring show about her life, Thirty Million Minutes.
Commenting on her body image, Miss French who has seen her weight fluctuate in recent years, said: ‘You are just never allowed to be anything other than a fat woman,’ she said.
‘And I thought, let me have control of this. If I can talk about things in my own voice and control how it is said, then that is best.’
She said she would not be discussing her new husband, charity boss Mark Bignell, 51, in her stage show.

Dawn French opens up about her divorce on Australian TV

But she revealed she regards him as her ’sacrificial anode’.

Long relationship: Dawn French and Lenny Henry, who has a daughter Billie, 23, split up in 2010 after 25 years of marriage

She said: ‘A sacrificial anode is a piece of metal which is put on the side of a boat, usually a big boat, and it gathers all the corrosion and the rust to it, so that the boat survives for longer. And that is how I regard him.’
Asked how they met she added: ‘He had known my mother for years and was a colleague of hers, helping people with drug and alcohol problems.
‘I hadn’t noticed him as I was happily married. Then I did notice him and that was that.’
Ukip candidate William Henwood was forced to resign from the party last month after he suggested Lenny, should emigrate to a ‘black country’ .
His remark came after the star launched a campaign for more people from ethnic minorities on British TV and media.

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