Advertisement

Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards reports social media racist to the police

Danny Thompson
·Contributor
·2 min read

Watch: Brenda Edwards opens up about horrific online racial abuse

Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards has spoken of being targeted by racists on social media – and how she reported one troll to the police.

The actress and singer discussed the abuse while appearing on ITV’s lunchtime panel show alongside Andrea McLean, Denise Welch and Kéllé Bryan on Monday.

The panel were discussing Meghan Markle’s comments about being the “most trolled person in the entire world in 2019”.

Read more: Davina McCall says menopause took her back to her drug addict days

Brenda Edwards attends the gala night performance of "The Prince of Egypt" at the Dominion Theatre on February 25, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Prince of Egypt)
Brenda Edwards said she reported one social media troll to the police. (David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Prince of Egypt)

Edwards said: “In the last couple of weeks, somebody trolled me online but it was racial abuse.

“My thing is you have an opinion, you might not want to agree with that opinion and that’s fine, and I’m happy with that.

“But when you want to bring colour into that and use it as a weapon – somebody basically said to me I should go back to where I originated from.

“I am a strong person, but I found that it was chipping away at me mentally. I blocked the person and then they came back a second time with something else.

“I reported it to the police as a racial abuse crime because that’s what it is and I’m not going to stand for that and I don’t think people should.

Watch: 'I was the most trolled person in the entire world,' says Duchess of Sussex

“We should speak up. When it goes personal, it’s a bit too much.”

Bryan also spoke about being targeted with racist abuse in the episode.

The former Eternal singer said: “For me, the depth of the abuse is what got to me.

Read more: Nadia Sawalha says she would feel 'awkward' on 'Strictly' at her age

“The fact they would call me an Uncle Tom, or a sell-out, or a bounty, I found it infuriating because you don’t actually know me or have a clue of my history, or what I’ve actually done for my race over the last 25 years of my career.

“I hope what we’re saying resonates with people and they think twice before they press send.”

Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.

Watch: