Konnie Huq used to “fantasise” about having lighter skin.
Konnie Huq
The 45-year-old star struggled to find any role models in books or on TV that she could identify with and though she thinks it was “terrible”, it made her long to have a different skin tone so she could fit in with those around her.
She told The Times' Weekend supplement: “People forget the 1980s and 1990s was a time before any concept of inclusivity and diversity.
“I was a young girl who totally wanted to fit in with the world around me. I have older sisters, but there was a big age gap because after them my mum had a miscarriage and then another child who died very young.
“I was looking for role models and I didn’t see myself in kids’ books or on TV, so I fantasised about being lighter. Wanting to have lighter skin is terrible for any child — it’s insidious.”
And though Konnie never watched the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey – in which Duchess Meghan claimed “concerns” has been expressed about the skin colour of her son Archie – she thinks it is “plain wrong” if such conversations happened.
She added: “And if there is someone in a powerful position judging skin colour [as the Sussexes have suggested], then that’s just plain wrong.”
The former ‘Blue Peter’ presenter admitted the pressures of her biological clock led to her compromising when looking for a partner before she met her husband, Charlie Brooker.
Konnie – who has sons Covey, eight, and seven-year-old Huxley with her husband – said: “As a young girl I was determined to marry a Muslim man from Bangladesh. As I got older I widened the criteria to just a Muslim man.
"Later that changed to a man who I could convert to being Muslim if necessary. By my mid-thirties I was down to ... anyone who would have me, essentially. And my parents were also just happy that I wasn’t going to be alone.”
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