Leigh Francis has revealed a woman accidentally clawed at his face during one of his DJ sets, leaving a grizzly scar.
The comedian and Celebrity Juice host, best known for his alter egos Keith Lemon and Avid Merrion, has found a lucrative second career as a festival DJ – but admitted during a TikTok that there are some hazards involved.
In a video published on Sunday (10 May), Francis revealed he was DJing at the Sound Bites festival in Syon Park when the incident occurred.
“I went into the crowd and someone was overcome with joy, so that was a nice feeling, and she went ‘I love you’ and put her hands towards my face and her thumbnail, which was quite long, did that.”
Francis then showed off a raw scratch running across his temple and close to his eye.
“I’m gonna go to bed now and dream of Star Wars figures and my wife,” he joked, before adding: “Could’ve been worse, could’ve gone in my eye but yeah bit of a naughty one that, innit?”
“That’s bonkers!” one Francis fan replied.
Another added: “Oh no! [This is] why I am not a fan of long nails.”
A follow-up video, in which Francis has donned the guise of Romanian celebrity stalker Merrion, includes footage of the overzealous fan in the crowd of Francis’s DJ set before the incident took place.
“This is the lady that claw my face with over-excitement!” Francis said, in his Merrion voice. “This is where I get the war wound,” he captioned the video.
Francis has largely kept a low profile in recent years, after clips from his older comedy sketches resurfaced amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. He would subsequently apologise for his “offensive” portrayals of Black people on his early sketch show Bo’ Selecta.
From 2002 to 2009, Francis starred in the surreal Channel 4 show, during which he impersonated famous people, including Black celebrities Craig David and Trisha Goddard, while wearing large latex masks.
Goddard thanked Francis for the apology soon after, while also revealing that his apology had led to a surge of online hatred directed at her.
“Since Leigh made that apology, I’ve been subject to more vile abuse,” she said. “I’ve had thousands and thousands of people saying the same thing. Leigh really sweetly talked to my daughter for a long time and he was horrified. No one forced him to; he chose to say sorry.”
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