Laurence Fox denies 'brutal' divorce from Billie Piper turned him into a ... trends now
Laurence Fox has denied he was turned into a 'weaponised anti-woke bad boy' by his divorce from Billie Piper as his libel trial went over his love life in stark detail.
The former Lewis actor also denied his ex-girlfriend Sara McKinnon broke up with him because of comments he made on Question Time when he accused an audience member of racism for calling him a 'white privileged male'.
The 45-year-old also claimed that social media posts calling him a racist were 'an organised pile on' that destroyed his career.
The actor and right-wing activist told the High Court that a tweet by actress Nicola Thorp calling him 'unequivocally, publicly and undeniably a racist' ended his career.
Mr Fox is being sued by Simon Blake, a former trustee of the LGBT+ charity Stonewall and drag queen Colin Seymour, known as Crystal, for calling them 'paedophiles' on Twitter.
The founder of the Reclaim Party, is counter-suing the pair and Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp, 35, after they branded him a 'racist' in response to a post by Sainsbury's celebrating Black History Month in October 2020.
Laurence Fox arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice, Chancery Lane, on November 24
The actor, pictured here with his ex-wife Billie Piper on their wedding day, denies his split from her turned him into a 'weaponised anti-woke bad boy'
The former GB News presenter is best known for playing DS James Hathaway in the ITV series Lewis and was formerly married to Doctor Who actress Billie Piper.
He claims he called the pair paedophiles as a 'baseless and meaningless' insult in response to them 'baselessly' calling him racist while Seymour and Blake claim the insult was based on homophobic tropes.
Lorna Skinner, KC, representing Blake, Seymour and Thorp, at the High Court, asked today if it was Fox's divorce with Piper that had radicalised him into a 'weaponised anti-woke bad boy,' as had been stated in a Sunday Times article.
The bespectacled actor, giving evidence wearing a navy suit and purple tie, said: 'Divorce is a pretty brutal thing and our divorce in itself was a pretty brutal divorce but I don't think - I don't know.'
He said the article, which referred to him being suicidal after the divorce was a 'fairly solid' assessment of how he felt.
'Do you agree that was the impetus causing you to change track from acting to a 'weaponised anti-woke bad boy?' Ms Skinner asked.
'No,' Fox replied.
Fox said he had not read the interview or other media interviews he gave at the time or in preparation for the trial.
'It was pretty sad and depressing watching the destruction of my life so I didn't wish to read it,' he said.
'I tend not to read the media.'
Fox said he was thrown out of his family home after his controversial Question Time appearance in January 2020 because he refused to take off a Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' hat.
'I had taken to wearing a Trump 2020 hat and this caused so much distress to my sister that I was thrown out because I refused to remove the hat,' he said.
He said he did not attend his family dinners for some weeks afterwards.
Laurence Fox was 'flabbergasted' when his acting agent dropped him, the court previously heard (pictured with girlfriend Elizabeth Barker outside court on November 22)
Simon Blake (left), Nicola Thorp and Colin Seymour (right) pictured on November 22
Fox denied that his brother-in-law actor Richard Ayoade was 'furious' with him about the Question Time comments.
During the show he accused an audience member of racism for calling him a 'white privileged male.'
'It was dreadful, that amount of media exposure is very hard for any family and suddenly everyone's doors being are being knocked on and obviously they're going straight to Richard who's a very private actor and saying 'do you think he's a racist.'
'I phoned Richard and said to him this is horrible can you say something and he said 'It's a twitter storm ignore it and it will go away.'
Ms Skinner suggested that it was comments on Question Time that destroyed his career, not the tweets by Thorp, Blake and Seymour.
He denied that he had told journalists after his Question Time appearance that he had no offers of work.
'No I did have some offers of work, I was immediately offered Gogglebox again, I'd done quite well on Googglebox, but after the Question Time period I thought I'd just keep my head down for a bit.
'Offers did continue from Question Time right up until Nicola Thorp's tweet which was the end in combination with the other two.
'I was in panic. [after Question Time] I wasn't expecting such a huge backlash but it was temporary.
'We were right in the middle of the BLM craze so I thought not being on the side of the BLM thing might be a bit of a problem for me as an actor.'
He said that other actors with socially conservative views often do not give interviews or express their views.
'The effect on my life had been devastating. I'd suddenly become overnight a bit of a celebrity and people coming up to me on the street and saying whopee! or not whopee.
'I'd had some experience of fame with my former wife because she was very popular - but not myself.
'Despite what I say I am quite shy out on the street. Being too anxious to go out and get a pint of milk, that's pretty devastating.
'The serious harm done to me had nothing to do with Question Time, it certainly effected my prospects at that time.
'I thought wow I didn't realise the whole of the world was intolerant of certain views.
'It's quite shocking when overnight I became a topic of conversation in everyone's living room.
Mr Fox, who denies being a racist, said in his written evidence he was 'horrified' when he saw he had been called a racist, which he later described as 'a career-ending word, and a reputation-destroying allegation'
'I had come to the conclusion I may never get an acting job again without expressing the correct opinion.
'I was asking myself rhetorical questions, in order to carry on working as an actor
