Laurence Fox dumped by mixed race girlfriend after Question Time racism row

Lewis actor Laurence Fox claims he was dumped by his mixed race girlfriend after his controversial appearance on Question Time earlier this year, in which he suggested Meghan Markle had not been the victim of racist press coverage.

His half-Kuwaiti girlfriend of five months, Sara McKinnon dumped him over his controversial rant. During the show, the actor said the race card had now been overplayed, while it was racist for anyone to call him a white privileged male.

“It’s not racism. No it’s not. We’re the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe’ Fox said in response to an audience member that suggested the treatment meted out to Markle had been racist.

‘It’s so easy to throw the card of racism at everybody and it’s really starting to get boring now.”

The Lewis star – a member of the Fox theatre dynasty who attended the elite fee-paying Harrow School – also took offense at the suggestion that he was a white privileged male who could not speak authoritatively on race relations.

“I can’t help what I am, I was born like this, it’s an immutable characteristic so to call me a white privileged male is to be racist, you’re being racist,” he said.

After the backlash from that episode, Fox told the Sunday Times that he had been dumped by his mixed race girlfriend at the time, while he also found support from those close to him hard to come by. He said he had asked for support from his brother-in-law, the comedian, writer and actor Richard Ayoade.

“…support you] on Twitter? It’s not real,” Ayoade reportedly said. “It doesn’t exist, it’s mad. Stay away from it all. You know who I am and I know who you are.”

The back and forth between the two continued, with Ayoade telling Fox that he had never experienced racism, which the Lewis actor disputed.

“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.”

Fox is an English actor, singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for playing the lead role of DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series Lewis from 2006 to 2015.