Laurence Fox ‘dumped by mixed race girlfriend’ after Question Time row

Laurence Fox was dumped by his mixed race girlfriend in the fallout of his rant about racism on Question Time earlier this year. 

The Lewis actor sparked an almighty race row in January when he weighed into the debate about Meghan Markle and systemic racism in the UK. 

During his appearance on the show, Laurence clashed with an audience member and said it was ‘racist’ for him to be described as a ‘white privileged male’ and that he was ‘bored’ of people ‘throwing the race card’ around. 

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Laurence reveals that he was dating a mixed race woman at the time of the controversy, but she dumped him immediately after in light of his comments. 

It also made the dynamic within his family awkward as his sister Lydia is married to half-Nigerian comedian Richard Ayoade. 

The married couple typically invite the family round every Sunday for lunch but Laurence revealed: ‘There were a couple of weekends I didn’t go,’ due to the public backlash. 

In the thick of the criticism, Laurence recalled how he ‘begged’ Richard for help, but the comedian ‘was like what, [support you] on Twitter? It’s not real. It doesn’t exist, it’s mad. Stay away from it all. You know who I am and I know who you are.’ 

Richard then told Laurence: ‘You have never encountered racism,’ to which the actor responded: ‘Yeah, of course I have. I’ve encountered racism from black people towards me, when I was working in Kenya [as a safari driver] for seven months. It’s the way you’re spoken to — racism can be deferential.’ 

Laurence later stated in the interview that he’s ‘not denying privilege and I’m not denying racism’.

He also confirmed that he and Richard ‘are all friends now’. 

During his controversial Question Time debate, Laurence insisted: ‘It’s not racism. No it’s not. We’re the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe.