Hollyoaks actress Kéllé Bryan opened up on the tough conversation about racism that she recently had with her two children following the death of George Floyd in police custody.
Speaking on Loose Women, Kéllé, who plays Martine Deveraux on the Channel 4 soap, said she discussed the death of George Floyd with her daughter Kayori Rose Gudgeon, six, and son Regan, eight.
"I felt it was really important for my children to understand what's happening," she said.
"So last night, I took it upon myself to sit them both down and selected a piece of footage that I thought was age-appropriate, and I showed them what had happened to George.
"My six-year-old was horrified, she just kept saying, 'mummy, why are they doing that to him? Aren't they the police? Aren't they supposed to help him?
"My eight-year-old was the opposite, he was quite pensive and he took the time to think about what he'd seen, and process it, and we had a long conversation about what happened, and I tried my best to articulate what he was seeing.
"Because for them, the police are there to help and protect."
She added: "They found it a struggle to understand why a policeman would do this."
Kéllé also spoke about an awful experience of racism she endured while she was pregnant.
While walking in a park with her eldest son, two children came over to her and said an offensive racial slur to her.
She said:" "There was a group of young lads and they basically called me the N-word.
"They basically said I was a black B-word and to get out of their park."
She confronted the boys directly about what they had just said, and then also spoke to their parents, who appeared horrified.
"I wanted to show my son that one you have to stand up to bullies,' said Kéllé, who also said Regan experienced racism from his classmates when he was just five, and they excluded him.
Loose Women airs on weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.
