Charlene White
(Picture: PA Archive)Loose Women panellist and ITV newsreader Charlene White has revealed the racist bullying she experienced as a child.
White, 42, spoke about the bullying she received after her parents moved her to a private school while working five or six jobs between them to afford the school fees.
The presenter told The Sun: “I was seven and I didn’t know I was different until that moment.
“When I moved [to a private school], they weren’t used to kids like me, and that was really hard.”
She continued: “I think my parents were prepared for it, because when I was told to go back to where I came from, and that I “looked like poo”, my parents were instantly up at the school, because they knew what it’s like to grow up in an incredibly racist environment.”
The racism has not stopped for the host, however, with White now dealing with online internet trolls.
She said: “I love replying to trolls online now.
“It’s like, ‘She’s only got the job because they need to add another Black person so they decided to choose her.’ After a 20-year career, yeah, they’ve picked me out of nowhere to do this job.”
Just last month, the ITV News presenter expressed how she had been mistaken for fellow Loose Women panellist and friend Brenda Edwards five times at an industry event.
She tweeted in a thread: “I’m used to being mistaken for my other black @loosewomen ladies. We all are tbh. Some ppl are too lazy to work out black women don’t all look alike.
“But I’ve spent today at a do with my LW fam where multiple times I was called Brenda. My response? “No, I’m the other black one”.”
The first 4 times it happened today I shrugged it off. But the 5th time was as I was leaving, by someone who’d spent 10mins having a chat. I honestly left feeling that it doesn’t matter where you are in life, some ppl will always mistake you for the other black girl in the office
— Charlene White (@CharleneWhite) July 6, 2022
She added: “You have no idea how many black women in the public eye get mistaken for each other. It happens routinely.
“Not just us, too many minority women & men on a daily basis. It upset me more than usual today, probably because it happened to a few of us at the Pride parade on Sat too.”
