Sir Lenny Henry was rejected by women because of his skin colour.
The comedian shared difficult experiences when he was a young man, revealing that women turned him down because he is black.
Recalling how he used to go to discos, he said some girls told him that was the reason for not wanting to dance with him
He told the BBC podcast Grounded that he would be ‘left out’ at the events.
‘If you wanted to meet members of the opposite sex you’ve got to go to a place where they might be and where they might be was St Thomas’ disco next to the church,’ Sir Lenny explained.
‘You would spend nearly all evening ignoring them and then in the last five minutes, there would be this rush to the dance floor to try and slow dance with a girl.
‘I would ask anyone to dance, I didn’t want to be left out and my friends would be dancing with girls…some girls wouldn’t snog me because I was a black guy.’
When asked by host Louis Theroux how he knew that, Sir Lenny replied: ‘They would say.’
Turning to the early days of his love for comedy, he explained that he hid his comedy impressions from his parents.
He explained: ‘There was no wise-cracking from a child in our house because that was seen as being cheeky and overstepping the mark.
‘So, if you cracked wise jokes in earshot of your parents, you would get a slap round the head… in our house, my mum was the funny one, end of story… it was like a little secret I held in my heart for quite a long time.’
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