Rochelle Humes (Ian West/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Rochelle Humes has revealed that she was scared to take her children to school after receiving death threats online following a “colourism” row.
The former Saturdays singer, 32, faced a backlash amid claims she had replaced a darker skinned woman as a presenter on a Channel 4 documentary about black women and maternity care in the UK.
Humes faced criticism on social media as detractors claimed it was unfair for her to get the gig.
She has now opened up about the mental health struggle she went through as a result of the threats.
She told The Diary Of A CEO podcast: “I didn’t want to make it about me. I didn’t want to make it about the fact that actually I was scared to take my kid to nursery that day because I got death threats.”
The singer, who is married to fellow pop star Marvin Humes, added: “I didn’t want to make it about me. I didn’t want to make it about the fact that actually I was scared to take my kid to nursery that day because I got death threats.
“Marvin did take my phone off me though, I love my phone at the weekend, he was like ‘that’s going off’ and he literally texted everybody that works with me and was like if you need her I’m here but no more phone.”
She said the “dial turned” overnight after another woman shared a post on Instagram claiming she had also been asked to present The Black Maternity Scandal.
“There was a post that was posted on Instagram from another woman who is an author and a presenter that had said that she had been asked to front the same show,” she said.
She continued: “I’d woken up to and seen this post and was mortified, she was a darker-skinned black woman, the first thing I did was DM her ‘this is my number, I don’t know what s*** has gone down here but this is my number, give me a call’.
“To this day I’ve not heard from her... then that sort of triggered this whole conversation of the fact that I’d taken a darker-skinned woman’s bread and the dial switched overnight and I was beside myself, devastated.”
Humes added: “It sort of snowballed into this chat and colourism most definitely exists, I’m aware of that. I might be lighter than one woman but I’m definitely darker than some.
“I let that conversation play out because the more we talk about these things the better, however it was harsh and it was a hard pill to swallow.”
The Black Maternity Scandal won a British Journalism award last year.
It explored why black women in the UK are four times more likely to die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth than white women.
