Tearful Loose Women host Charlene White told ancestor was slave owner with shocking past

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Unfastened Ladies’s Charlene White was left tearful after studying her 5 occasions great-grandad was a slave proprietor who had illegitimate kids at his plantation

Unfastened Ladies star Charlene White has found her 5 occasions great-grandad was a slave proprietor who had illegitimate kids at his plantation.

As a part of ITV’s programming for Black Historical past Month, the newsreader, 41, uncovers the roots of her hyperlinks to the British Empire.

Tracing her household tree in Jamaica, she learns in regards to the surprising previous of 18th century-born John Stanbury.

Within the documentary, Charlene says: “He was a slave proprietor, he owned individuals who appeared like me.

“And that’s inside my bloodline, which is a bizarre factor to get my head round and he’s answerable for my households’ lighter pores and skin.

“Is it a pleasant historical past? No, however I really feel it’s one thing I wanted to know.”

Genealogist Dianne Golding-Frankson tells her a number of kids on his property had been combined race.

The star had initially been seeking to discover out about her great-great-great grandfather William Stanbury.

She learns he had a brother and a father who had been each referred to as James.

Dianne says: “The position of John Stanbury in St Catherine and residency of James Stanbury is a robust suggestion James Stanbury is the illegitimate youngster of John.”

Charlene, whose household had been a part of the Windrush era who settled within the UK, provides: “You recognize the purple in my hair when it’s not dyed? Gosh, it’s due to this man. This man may have been accountable for lots of ache.

“And selected to place his kids in a inventory take of the slaves he owned.”

The mum of two additionally traces her different four-times nice grandparents Andrew and Elsey Pusey, who had been born into slavery within the 1790s.

However they had been among the many first Jamaicans freed in 1834 when slavery was abolished, earlier than shopping for land to stay on and promote produce.

Crying tears of pleasure, the London presenter says: “At my age they had been freed and needed extra.

“To know I got here from right here and generations stored on wanting extra for his or her kids they usually did it.

“The dream Andrew and Elsey had, they did it. I’m so proud.”

She says the discoveries have given her a “sense of understanding of my place inside the empire I merely didn’t have earlier than”.

However provides: “I consider this isn’t only a story about me or my household.

“I believe it’s a narrative about who all of us are as British individuals by way of our historical past with the Empire.

“And the societies and tradition and other people will without end be intertwined.”

*Charlene White: Empire’s Little one is on ITV on Thursday at 9pm.