BBC Comic Relief returns this evening with TV icon Sir Lenny Henry presenting the fundraising action show. Sir Lenny is best known for his acting and comedy skills, has made us laugh throughout his career and most recently blessed him with his vocal performance on ITV’s The Masked Singer.
Now 63, the comedy star has helped build comic relief, which has helped millions of people and raised £ 50 million a year for those affected by poverty. Away from the spotlight, Lenny married in 1984 to actor and comic Dawn French.
Lenny and the Vicar of Dibley star were seen as one of the power couples of pop culture, and Dawn spoke openly about the struggles with the split. The couple divorced in 2010 and in a 2017 interview with Mirror Dawn said she still felt “broken” after the divorce.
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The comedian said, “I fixed myself. I saw what happens when you break up. When I was single, I found my new self. But I think it’s OK to grieve over a relationship.” Despite the pain of their divorce, the two continued to be great friends.
(Image: Ian West / PA Wire)
Dawn told Spiegel: “Remarkably, we seem to have switched with relative ease from a 25-year marriage to a lasting friendship. I’m surprised by us – there is no war, we have proven to be best friends. many good years, but one difficult last year.
Since 2012, Lenny has been in a relationship with Lisa Makin – a theater producer and casting director. In an interview with the Mirror, Lenny said: “I’m very happy. I’m in a happy place. It’s different and it’s beautiful. Life changes and life goes on. It’s like closing a chapter and it opens up the other. it’s good and it’s on. the boom – and that’s fantastic.
Lenny – whose full name is Lenworth George Henry – grew up in Dudley, just down the street from Wolverhampton. He mentioned in his autobiography Who Am I, Again? about violence in his mother’s house – an experience that turned him into a live show that would eventually help him buy a house.
In addition to domestic violence, he was also the victim of racist bullying. He is the son of Jamaican immigrants and was open about the regular violence and abuse he experienced due to his skin color. At one point, racism so badly moved police into his home to protect his family because of further criminal damage and attempts on their lives. There was even a time when a racist thug came and tried to set the house on fire with a flaming cloth, and another as someone smeared their door with grease.
In Lenny’s autobiography, he mentions the progress that society is making against racism, writing: “If we look back in 100 years at the way things are changing, we’ll go: ‘Wow, that was a finger. ” But when you’re in the middle, the change is long. And I think that’s the problem. Things do not happen fast enough. “
BBC Comic Relief will be broadcast on BBC One at 7pm.
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