15 March 2024 , 17:00
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Sir Lenny Henry has revealed this year will be his last as host of Comic Relief for an emotional reason.
The comedian and presenter co-founded the charity back in 1985 alongside Love Actually director Richard Curtis. They aimed to bring comedians together to make the public laugh while raising money to help people across the world and in the UK. Their appeal's highlight is Red Nose Day, with the first live TV show taking place back in 1986.
Lenny joined Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry and Kate Bush. While throughout the years, Lenny co-hosted with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Billy and the late Victoria Wood. After almost 40 years on-off in the role, Lenny has now decided it is time to step away. Speaking about his reasoning, Lenny admitted he missed doing the show with Vicar of Dibley star, Dawn, who he was married to from 1984 to 2010.
Speaking of Dawn and his original co-stars, he said: "We were like a little gang. But for a few years I’ve felt, 'Where’s the new gang?' [Comic Relief] is a baton to be handed on to a new group of people who are going to take on Comic Relief." While he is stepping away from the live show, Lenny will continue to work for the charity behind the scenes.
He has shared Doctor Who star David Tennant, who hosted the show in 2019, could take over from him. Speaking to Radio Times, Lenny said: "I thought, well, actually, [David was] brilliant. And I think there’s other people, newer people, who are coming up like Romesh Ranganathan, Alesha Dixon, AJ Odudu. There are new people coming up now who can absolutely take the reins."
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Lenny hosted the show with his comedian pals and ex wife Dawn French (Comic Relief via Getty Images)Lenny is Comic Relief's Life President and prior to founding the charity, he was a member of alternative comedy collective, The Comic Strip. He met Dawn while in the group, which saw their careers boom as well as Jennifer Saunders and her husband Adrian Edmondson.
Lenny and Dawn became the most famous couple in comedy and went on to get married in a 'fancy-schmancy chi-chi hall'. They announced their shock split 25 years later. It was an "entirely amicable" divorce, as they stated their intention to "maintain their close friendship".
The comedians vowed to both co-parent their daughter Billie and have rarely spoke about their split since. They divorced on the grounds of his "unreasonable behaviour" in 2010. The statement issued on behalf of the couple read: "The separation is entirely amicable and they fully intend to maintain their close friendship. Their priority is to commit to the future joint parenting of their daughter."
Lenny told the Express in 2016: "There’s generally a situation where one partner wants the marriage to finish more than the other. I think maybe one of us did, then the other one did, and then the other did over a period of time and then, in the end, we thought, 'Oh, actually maybe we both do'. We knew it wasn't possible to continue."