Danielle Lineker, a former model,said that she was abused by racist bullies because of her Indian ancestry.
London: Danielle Lineker, a former model,said that she was abused by racist bullies because of her Indian ancestry. Her grandfather was Indian, born in an area of Bengal which later became Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947. Although he died a year before Danielle was born, his legacy sometimes had a difficult impact during her childhood in Cardiff.
‘Nobody guesses now - they just think I wear fake tan - but as a child, I was aware that I looked slightly different from other children at school,” she says. “I’d ask my mum why my skin was darker than theirs. I was called ‘Paki’ a lot at school, which I now realise was just kids being kids - they’ll pick on anything that’s different - but when I was six or seven it was tough. I’d cry to my mum as I asked her why I was different. My grandmother kept my grandfather’s memory alive by cooking Indian food and watching Bollywood films with me, but for a long time I wasn’t particularly interested. I didn’t see my heritage as a positive thing - I just wanted to be the same as everyone else. Gradually, though, Danielle’s interest in discovering more about the history of her family began to grow.
‘When I was a teenager, I started to become more intrigued by my grandfather’s life, although it’s only recently, because my grandmother has passed away, that I’ve really wanted to explore it properly. I was very close to her, and her death made me want to know more about my grandfather and their life.
Danielle Lineker
