Celebrity Traitors star Romesh Ranganathan reveals that his wife Leesa was targeted by an online troll who branded her a 'race traitor' for marrying him

Celebrity Traitors star Romesh Ranganathan has revealed that his wife, Leesa, was targeted by an online troll who branded her a 'race traitor' for marrying him.

The comedian, 48, said that he receives racist messages online every day. However, the abuse recently took a deeply personal turn when his wife, 47, received her first racist message on social media.  

'I'm not exaggerating, I get racist messages every day online,' Romesh explained.

'My wife, Leesa, someone messaged her on Instagram and said, "You are a race traitor because you married one of them. You are no longer welcome among the whites." She was incredibly upset, and I said, "Here's my advice: look at our house. You've come over to the dark side, and it's working pretty f***ing well for you. Cry those tears into the swimming pool."' 

He added: 'I felt bad about it, though. Even though it is not my fault, I am the reason that Leesa received that message. She is upset now because she is married to me. That's not a nice thing to contend with. 

'If she was married to a white guy, she wouldn't have got that message, but she also wouldn't have a pool.'

The Weakest Link presenter made the comments in front of an intimate crowd at a pub in New Malden while testing new comedy material for his forthcoming tour, Romesh Ranganathan Will Change Your Life, which kicks off next month.

The gig was set up through Outside The Box Comedy Club, with tickets costing £18.

One source told the Daily Mail that Romesh was on 'top form' and the crowd 'loved his new material'.  

Romesh previously opened up about his sons suffering 'abhorrent' racist abuse at school.

The TV and radio star shares three boys, Alex, Theo, and Charlie, with his drama teacher wife. The couple are raising their boys in Romesh's hometown of Crawley in West Sussex, in a £3million home just five miles from the terrace house where he grew up.

'The boys have had racist abuse. Not loads, not as much as I did, but they have had comments,' he 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.'

Recalling racist incidents that occurred when he was growing up, Romesh said: '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 skinheads when I was coming out of a club.'

His 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 his later father Ranga.