Sir Lenny Henry’s mother used to beat him with a frying pan.
The 61-year-old comic has revealed how his strict late parent, Winnie – who had six other children – would discipline him and his siblings by throwing stuff at them but she was a huge fan of his comedic talent from a young age.
In his upcoming autobiography, ‘Who Am I, Again?’, Lenny also revealed that his father, Winston, was stand-offish with him because he was the result of an affair when Winnie emigrated to Britain before him.
He wrote: "My dad rarely spoke to me. He never once told me a story or gave me a hug or kissed me."
Lenny also discussed the racist abuse he and his family would receive growing up in the West Midlands.
He recalled: "My mum was followed round the streets, people asking where her tail was. My dad could have been in a fight every day."
After successfully auditioning for TV talent show ‘New Faces’ in 1975, Lenny signed up to perform on ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’, which featured performers blacking up while completing musical routines.
Lenny was the only black entertainer in the act and he revealed his brother Seymour refused to have anything to do with him when he starred in the programme.
He said: "My life quickly became one of creeping dread. Very similar to how Melania Trump must feel most evenings.
"I would arrive at the theatre and know that I would be the only actual black person in the building, perhaps the only one within a 50-mile radius."
Although his mum – who died in 1998 – was extremely hard on him, Lenny now sees it as her way of showing him to never accept any kind of racial abuse and he wishes he "stood up to racism" more.
He said: "She told me not to rise to any kind of abuse. Ignore it, just get on with it."
Lenny previously revealed his mum taught him and his siblings that "integration shouldn’t mean humiliation", but the ‘Broadchurch’ star insisted he wasn’t actually "bullied", he just "got into fights".
Speaking in 2015, he said: "My mum, who’d come to the West Midlands from Jamaica in the mid-Fifties, instilled in all seven of her children the importance of fitting in but she was very clear that integration shouldn’t mean humiliation. Although a born-again Christian, when it came to the racist abuse of her own family, she was prepared to overlook the Lord’s ‘turn-the-other-cheek’ philosophy.
"Although I got into fights, I was never bullied."
Lenny Henry’s strict mother used to beat him
