Trisha Goddard reveals she stuffed loo roll in her mouth to stop herself crying after brutal racist abuse at school
TRISHA Goddard says she used to stuff loo roll in her mouth to stop herself crying at school as she was racially abused.
The 63-year-old opens up about her traumatic childhood on Piers Morgan's Life Stories.
Host Piers told viewers she was called a Golliwog and the N word all the time.
Trisha said: "I got really good at my primary school going in the loo, you get toilet paper and you stuff it in your mouth so they don't hear you crying.
"Because if they hear you crying while they're chanting the N-word outside, then you'll get it worse."
Piers said: "I mean, this is really tough for any young girl, wasn't it?"
Recalling one brutal incident, Trisha said: "I remember the worst time was in the canteen and a boy – we used to get our meals on a tray - and he went like that with his fists [hits the underside of the tray in the air].
"So all the food flew off the tray and everybody laughed. And I was so embarrassed and I picked up everything and I did the Oliver Twist thing.
"And I went back to the dinner lady and said, Excuse me… No. And she said, you've had. And everyone was laughing.
"So I got up. I ran out and I sat on a step and I was crying and crying. I must have been nine or 10 crying and crying.
"And I can see this teacher now, blonde hair, goofy teeth. He sat down next to me and he said, ‘you've got to understand. You've got to toughen up. You've got to toughen up. We people in this country, we don't want people like you here. So if you're going to stay here, you're going to have to toughen up.’
"When I was nine years old and my teacher, who watched me get hit, was telling me this was my life. I thought I'd failed. I thought I wasn't being English enough.
"I remember that distinct moment because I thought, no one's going to look out for you for the rest of your life.
"You are in charge of you. I never told my parents because I thought I would be letting mum down."
Trisha became the victim of more racism last year when Bo’ Selecta! comic Leigh Francis publicly apologised for his portrayal of Trisha Goddard on the show.
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He impersonated her by wearing a rubber mask that exaggerated her nose and lips on his hit C4 show in the early 2000s.
She hoped it would end the years of racist abuse she and her family have endured.
But instead, the presenter and talk show host was bombarded with vile trolling which left her telling her daughter Billie: “I’m sick of being black.”