Romesh Ranganathan has revealed his three sons have faced racist abuse at school.

The couple are raising their boys in Romesh's hometown in West Sussex, in a £3million home just five miles from the terrace house where he grew up.

Romesh, 48, admitted his boys have faced the same 'abhorrent' racism he experienced himself in the town, but says 'it was worse back then'.

'The boys have had racist abuse. Not loads, not as much as I did, but they have had comments,' Romesh told his Wolf And Owl podcast co-host Tom Davis.

'We had a bit of an incident. One of the kids was chatting to a girl, just some friend at school, and one of the other kids said, "I don't know why you're bothering to chat to her. You're going to end up marrying your cousin."'

Romesh added: 'Alex has had the P-word said to him, when he's been walking around school.' 

The comedian explained he places blame with the kids' parents, pointing out that 'at a certain point you've got to go "they're obviously hearing that at home". So whenever I see that or I hear that a kid's done it, the next time I see their parents I'm thinking "you're racist", right? And that's a horrible thing.'

Romesh added though that whilst 'racism is horrible and abhorrent', he believes 'it's a mistake to supercharge it'.

'What I mean by that is if somebody calls you a racial slur and it immediately ignites you, it gives that person power over you,' he said. 

'I'm not saying you shouldn't react to racism, but I'm saying that immediately leading you to be violent is not something I want my kids to do.'

Romesh also recalled racist incidents when he was growing up, admitting, 'I got slurs thrown at me a fair bit.

'I remember once I was walking out of school and like there was this kid that was sort of known for being racist just spat on me.

'Then at uni, it's happened a few times, I got jumped by skin-heads when I was coming out of a club.'

Romesh's mother Shanthi, who stars with him on his game show Romesh Ranganathan's Parents' Evening, moved to Crawley from Sri Lanka at the age of 19 with Romesh's father Ranga.

The comedian has previously spoken about his impoverished upbringing, including the challenges faced by his family when their home was repossessed after his accountant father was jailed for two years for fraud.

Recalling how the family spent a period in bed-and-breakfast accommodation as they waited for the council to rehouse them, he said: 'This all happened very, very quickly. It was a struggle.

'My mum found out my dad had been messing around. He fell into financial difficulty so we ended up getting our house taken away.

'We were supposed to go into a council flat, but they didn't have enough so we were in a bed-and-breakfast for a year-and-a-half. And my dad was in prison. It was insane.'

He broke into comedy with TV roles on panel shows such as A League Of Their Own following his stand-up career, then took over as host of The Weakest Link in 2021. He currently hosts shows on Radio 2 and last year made his West End stage debut.

Romesh's next major project is the second series of The Celebrity Traitors, in which he appears in an all-star cast which includes his close friend and regular collaborator Rob Beckett.