Jason Lee voices heartbreak at late mum not hearing David Baddiel’s blackface apology-Cydney Yeates-Entertainment – Metro

Jason Lee has addressed David Baddiel’s blackface apology (Picture: Instagram)

Jason Lee has shared his upset over his late mother not being here to have heard David Baddiel’s apology for his racist blackface impersonation.

Comedian and writer Baddiel ridiculed the footballer on his BBC sketch show Fantasy Football League in the 90s, which he fronted alongside Frank Skinner.

Some 25 years later, he apologised to Lee in a face-to-face meeting for the first time.

The apology was featured in an episode of Lee’s podcast AbsolutLee and will also appear in Baddiel’s Channel 4 documentary Jews Don’t Count, which will air on Monday night.

However, the former Nottingham Forest footballer has voiced his sorrow over the apology. ‘The most disappointing thing around it all is that my mother is no longer with us and she never got to hear Baddiel apologise,’ he said.

Baddiel used blackface to impersonate Lee (Picture: BBC)

Baddiel and Lee come face to face in the Channel 4 documentary Jews Don’t Count and on Lee’s podcast (Picture: Channel 4)

‘To be a parent and witness your son go through that, to go to a stadium and listen to people abuse your child must be difficult. There were times when I told her don’t come to games, stay away, my biggest supporter. It was confrontational for my family at times.’

Lee added to The Times that he had never met Baddiel before he gave his ‘long overdue’ apology.

‘Timing is everything,’ he continued. ‘He’s back in the public eye again. Football tournaments are his moments. Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) is everywhere again.

‘And he’s doing his show. I understand fully he’s used this situation mostly to benefit the documentary. To move forward he needed to address this situation.’

In his apology, Baddiel says: ‘I’ve said I’m sorry in print, I’ve said I’m sorry on TV, but there’s something missing, which is what we lost sight of in those sketches was the human being on the other end of those sketches, which is you.’

Lee responds by asking: ‘My first question would be why has it taken you 25 years for you to reach out and have this conversation man to man?’

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‘That’s my bad as well. I’m sorry it’s taken so long. To explain it, there’s shame, there’s awkwardness, there’s fear. It took a while for me to understand how much we f*cked up and I think also stuff happened to me since then that made me understand how you must have felt.

‘As I became more well known, particularly as I put my Jewish identity a bit more front foot, suddenly I was getting racist abuse. I hated it and it did start to shift if me… of course, that’s how Jason Lee must have felt.’

David Baddiel: Jews Don’t Count airs Monday at 9pm on Channel 4.

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