Dame Meera Syal has said she was sexually assaulted by an actor who offered to help her acting career. The comedy star opened up about the incident in a new interview, in which she said she was lured to her attacker’s home under false pretences in the 1980s when she was in her mid-twenties. At the time, Syal, now 65, was struggling to find acting work when the man offered to introduce her to casting directors at a gathering – but when she arrived at his home, she was the only one there.
Syal stayed for dinner as she trusted the man, who was as old as her father, but “he pounced on her and tried to rape” her. However, despite trying to fight him off, the man overpowered her. She didn’t report the incident to the police out of fear of how it would impact her family, and only told her friends the following decade.
I could have given up, but instead I sought out a group of south Asian writers. They encouraged me to write more, they found me a place to live, they healed me and awakened me politically.” In 1996, Syal co-created BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, which explored British Asian culture, alongside Anil Gupta and her future husband, Sanjeev Bhaskar. Six years later, she donned a wig and fake teeth to play the elderly Sushil ‘Ummi’ Kumar in comedy show The Kumars At No 42, centred on the family of a chat show presenter, played by Bhaskar.
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Syal previously revealed she was cast as the family’s grandmother, despite being 40, because “the character needed a lot of improvisational skills”, and the actors auditioning for the role were struggling to encapsulate what was required. The show became a phenomenon for the BBC and, in 2006, the cast released a cover of “Spirit in the Sky” with Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates for Comic Relief, which topped the charts. It was during the show’s run that Syal and Bhaskar took a 23-hour flight to Australia, and realised there was more to their friendship.
In 2005, they married and welcomed their son. Earlier this month, on Dish from Waitrose podcast, Syal reflected on the fact that her husband played her grandson on the show, stating: I mean, it was a bit weird that the man I would go on to marry was playing my grandson. But let’s move on swiftly from that.” Before Bhaskar, Syal was married to journalist Shekhar Bhatia from 1989 to 2002 in a ceremony she previously said was “semi-arranged”.
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