Dawn French has opened up about what prompted her to write her own autobiography – written as letters to the people she loved, including a heartfelt note to her ex-husband Sir Lenny Henry
Dawn French has talked about writing a letter to Lenny Henry (Image: Getty Images)
TV star and author Dawn French has opened up about what prompted her to write her autobiography – revealing it culminated in her composing a letter to her ex-husband, Sir Lenny Henry.
The 68-year-old appeared on comedian Mo Gilligan’s Beginning, Middle and End podcast as she discussed her memoir during a chat about her bestselling publications.
Explaining her motivation for writing the autobiography, Dawn admitted that it stemmed from an unauthorized biography, which prompted her to reclaim her narrative and document her own life story, reports Wales online.
She said: “I wrote an autobiography many years ago. And the reason I did it is because someone else wrote a biography about me and it was a very strange experience.
“I felt like I was being bullied because someone I don’t know, a pretty bad writer actually… made a huge deal out of writing my story. I’ve never met this person, they went and talked to some people, tried to talk to people in my family. Most people say ‘Nonono, who are you?’
“This book was out there with all these lies about me and kind of misrepresenting me about important things in my life and hurting my family. So the publisher came and said what you have to do is your book, your story. So it was a need, I was responding to what had happened.”
When writing her memoirs, Dawn chose an unconventional format, fashioning them as a series of letters to people she knew or looked up to, including her ex-husband Sir Lenny Henry. The couple were married for more than 25 years before announcing their amicable split in 2010.
She explained: “So I sat down to write this autobiography and thought, ‘Okay, how am I going to do this?’ And I wrote my autobiography in the form of letters.
“I wrote to people in my life. I wrote to my dad who died. I wrote to my mom. I wrote to Jennifer (Saunders). I wrote to my best friend. I wrote to David Cassidy, who I had a crush on.
“I wrote to the Beatles. I wrote fan letters. Some of them were just comedy. Some of them were heartfelt. I wrote to Lenny. I wrote to people I loved, my loved ones and people I admired. So luckily that book overtook the other book, which was rubbish.”
This wasn’t the first time Dawn has discussed Lenny Henry since their marriage ended. Speaking to Mirror several years after they separated, she reflected on how they had managed to turn their relationship into a friendship.
She revealed: “Remarkably, we seem to have moved from a 25-year marriage to a lasting friendship relatively easily. I’m amazed at us – there’s no war, we’ve turned out to be the best of friends. There were a lot of good years, but a difficult last year.”
