Romesh Ranganathan has disclosed all three of his sons have been subjected to racist abuse while attending school in West Sussex.
The 48-year-old television presenter and stand-up comedian opened up about the experiences on his Wolf and Owl podcast, which he co-hosts with Tom Davis.
Read Also: Bank of America vice-president named as woman killed in Times Square stabbing
“The boys have had racist abuse. Not loads, not as much as I did, but they have had comments,” he told Mr Davis during the episode.
Mr Ranganathan and his wife Leesa, a drama teacher, are bringing up their children, Alex, 16, Theo, 14, and Charlie, 11, in the same West Sussex town where the comedian himself grew up.
Read Also: Shabana Mahmood hands Cleveland Police £2million to help tackle Middlesbrough crimewave
Read Also: Battery storage cyber attack 'could cause national blackout' and £10bn in damage
Mr Ranganathan shared details of specific incidents his children have endured.
In one case, one of his sons was speaking to a female friend at school when another pupil intervened with a racist remark.
“One of the kids was chatting to a girl, just some friend at school, and one of the other kids said, ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering to chat to her. You’re going to end up marrying your cousin,'” he recounted.
His eldest son Alex has also been targeted with a racial slur while simply walking through the school grounds.
“Alex has had the P-word said to him when he’s been walking around school,” the comedian revealed.
He described such behaviour as both horrible and abhorrent, making clear the abuse was not an isolated occurrence.
Mr Ranganathan placed the responsibility for such behaviour squarely on the parents of the children involved.
He argued young people who use racist language are clearly picking it up in their home environment.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- ITV Trigger Point stars reveal gruelling reality behind series four’s biggest explosion
- ITV Trigger Point’s Eric Shango reveals ‘hardest’ part of acting career: ‘They don’t talk about it’
- ‘Racist’ row erupts as Sacha Baron Cohen faces bid to BLOCK new Ali G film from UK cinemas
“At a certain point, you’ve got to go, ‘They’re obviously hearing that at home’.
“So whenever I see that, or I hear that a kid’s done it, the next time I see their parents, I’m thinking ‘you’re racist’, right? And that’s a horrible thing,” he said.
Despite condemning racism unequivocally, Mr Ranganathan cautioned his sons against responding with aggression.
He warned allowing a racial slur to provoke an immediate violent reaction effectively hands power to the perpetrator.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t react to racism, but I’m saying that immediately leading you to be violent is not something I want my kids to do,” he explained.
The comedian also reflected on his own encounters with prejudice during his younger years, revealing he was frequently on the receiving end of slurs.
He recalled being spat on by a notoriously racist pupil as he left school one day.
The abuse continued into his university years, when he was attacked by “skinheads” outside a nightclub.
“I got slurs thrown at me a fair bit,” he said.
Mr Ranganathan’s mother Shanthi relocated to Crawley from Sri Lanka at 19 alongside his father Ranga.
She now appears with her son on his game show Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening.
The family endured significant hardship when Mr Ranganathan was young.
His father, an accountant, was imprisoned for two years for fraud, leading to the repossession of the family home.
They spent a year and a half in bed-and-breakfast accommodation while waiting to be rehoused by the council.
Before breaking into comedy, Mr Ranganathan worked as a maths teacher, which is how he met his wife Leesa.
His stand-up career led to television panel show appearances and he took over presenting duties on The Weakest Link in 2021.
He currently hosts programmes on Radio 2 and is set to appear in the second series of The Celebrity Traitors alongside close friend and fellow comedian Rob Beckett.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter
