Lewis Hamilton’s candid confession: they threw bananas at me, they called me names. School was the hardest time of my life, he says

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton talked about his past on Jay Shetty’s recent podcast. In particular, his school years where he was bullied because of the colour of his skin. The 38-year-old Briton described this period as the most traumatic and difficult part of his life.

Lewis Hamilton is known not only in the Formula 1 environment for doing his best to fight racism, pushing for diversity, supporting the LGBT community and last but not least for his charitable foundation.

Indeed, the now 38-year-old Mercedes driver went through bad experiences at a young age, when he says he was bullied and often called names by children.

He revealed just that in a recent Jay Shetty podcast, where he talked about his school days, which he described as the most traumatic and difficult part of his life.

Hamilton on his past

“School was probably the most traumatic and difficult part of my life, ” Hamilton admitted in the aforementioned podcast.

“At six years old, I was really bullied. I think I was one of three kids of color at that particular school at that time. I was just constantly being picked on by the stronger and bigger kids,” the seven-time champion continued.

Hamilton also described typical negative school moments, such as not being picked for the football team even though he was better than the other kids.

In history classes, he said, they weren’t taught that there were black people and other people who simply had different skin color.

“I thought: Oh, so where are the people who look like me? There were probably only seven, maybe six black people in my school out of 1,200 kids. Three of us were always coming into the principal’s office, and the principal was especially partial to me. So I was juggling all my emotions, struggling at school, and it wasn’t until I was 16 that I found out I was dyslexic,” Hamilton explains.

Hamilton’s father, Anthony Hamilton, is black, while his mother, Carmen Larbalestier, is white British. Hamilton describes himself as a black man and also recalls the constant teasing he experienced.

“You know what happened when I was at school in Steventon? The constant teasing, the things they threw at you, like bananas. Or people using the N-word. That was hard for me,” he concluded.

Sources: Jay Shetty podcast, Racing News 365