Lenny Henry and Dawn French: The truth behind the split. By. Alison Bowyer for Mail. Online. Updated. 1. BST, 8 April 2. 01.

For Lenny Henry, it was an occasion he never imagined would become a reality. Last November, after decades as a self- confessed down- to- earth comedian, he found himself on stage in London to collect a prestigious theatre award for his critically acclaimed performance as Shakespeare's Othello. At his side that night was his wife, Dawn French, with whom he'd marked their 2. As usual, they put on a bravura performance of togetherness as the strapping Henry, 5. Dawn French and Lenny Henry at the. Evening Standard Theatre Awards last November - she had always considered herself to be the thesp of the family. The only clue to the reality behind the facade they were trying so hard to maintain was that Dawn's usual megawatt smile was a tad subdued, as she posed for photographs with her hand placed rather awkwardly on her husband's shoulder.

Now, though, the pretence is over. This week, the couple finally admitted they took the decision to end their marriage six months ago. Last October, even as their silver wedding anniversary came and went, they were, in fact, busy thrashing out the details of their separation.

It has been an open secret among their friends for some time that all was not well with the marriage. A friend of Lenny told me this week that the star has reluctantly accepted he has simply outgrown the relationship - he has been the prime mover in the split. As Dawn's unofficial biographer, I can attest that she and Lenny have long been moving in increasingly different directions and have spent little time together in the past two years. To all intents and purposes, they have been living separate lives for a long time but, I am told, they were keen to retain a united front for the sake of their adopted daughter, Billie. Dawn and Lenny with their daughter Billie in 2.

Billie is said to be devastated over her parents' split. The couple, who could not have children of their own despite numerous gruelling rounds of IVF treatment, adopted the mixed race girl in 1. They are devoted to their daughter, who has blossomed into a beautiful and creative young woman. Nonetheless, their relationship with their strong- willed only child has been far from easy at times, and both Dawn and Lenny have spoken in the past of how testing they have found parenthood. As a result, friends of the couple tell me that they are prone to treat their daughter with kid gloves. Indeed, so protective are they of the teenager that last year they took the extraordinary step of taking out a lifetime legal injunction preventing any disclosure about her natural parents or adoption. It is significant that they felt brave enough to call an end to their marriage only when Billie turned 1.

Dawn and Lenny only decided to end their marriage after Billie turned 1. The fact their daughter officially became an adult in the same month as they reached their landmark anniversary was, I'm told, critical in them reaching their decision. They are agreed that this should be as painless as possible for Billie,' one friend told me this week. She has always been the priority. She's not a child any more. She's got a boyfriend and is starting to have a life of her own. Dawn and Len finally felt this is the right time.

They've kept Billie in the loop throughout.'. Yesterday, friends said of Billie: 'She is heartbroken.'. Despite having decided to call it a day months ago, the couple have continued to live together under the same roof - nominally at least - at their £2. Cornish coast. Indeed, they are on holiday abroad this week with their daughter, keen, as ever, to protect her from publicity surrounding their separation.

So what, then, was behind the end of a marriage that had been one of the most enduring in showbusiness? Many people have speculated that they simply never overcame the schism caused by Henry's dalliance with a young blonde woman in a hotel room 1. But the truth is that a dramatic shift in the balance of power between the couple may have signalled the death knell of their relationship.

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Dawn, for so long the more successful and confident of the two, has in the past couple of years seen her husband's career hit new heights while hers, to be blunt, has been on the wane. This critical change in the dynamics of their relationship was never more apparent than when Henry won that London Evening Standard Best Newcomer award last November for his highly acclaimed appearances as Othello. Lenny received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Othello in William Shakespeare's play. While Dawn, 5. 2, was naturally proud of her husband, she was nonetheless bound to suffer, according to those who know the couple, more than a frisson of professional envy at his success. How it must have privately irked Dawn to see her husband, once the junior partner in the relationship, overshadow her so completely. For until he made his hugely ambitious bid to conquer one of Shakespeare's most demanding roles, it had been Dawn who saw herself as the thespian of the family.

Though she and her former comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders, earned a lucrative living during a quarter of a century of their comedy duo, French And Saunders, Dawn frequently took time away from the double act to take on a series of modestly paid theatre roles. It is treading the boards that is, she feels, what real acting is all about, and I am told it pains her considerably that she has failed to win any recognition as a serious actress. Meanwhile, Lenny, against all the odds, took the theatre world and critics by storm with his triumphant and moving portrayal of the Moor. Given his recent achievements, it's little wonder that for some time now Lenny has no longer felt the need to look to his wife for approval and counsel. The couple on their wedding day in 1. It is this newfound independence and confidence in his own abilities that is the real reason their relationship finally unravelled. The truth is that right from the first time they met in the early Eighties, Lenny, a working- class boy from the West Midlands, was in awe of his wife's middle- class background as the daughter of a corporal in the RAF who sent his children to boarding school.

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Yet Lenny always felt Dawn was somehow superior to him. For her part, she was more than happy to play the role of mentor, modelling and shaping the raw comedian into a more politically correct (and some would say less funny) version of himself. Dawn made a point of attending all his live shows and made copious, often critical, notes about his performances.

She took a firm line on his traditional working men's club act. She rebuked him for having appeared on TV in The Black And White Minstrel Show (he was a guest comic drafted in to offset the controversial show's increasingly anachronistic image) and persuaded him to move away from using his colour to garner laughs. Though Dawn's further education did not extend beyond her time studying to be a teacher at drama school, intellectually Lenny always looked up to her and the graduate comedy set with whom she mixed. In fact, it was in a bid to keep up with what he perceives as his wife's superior brain that he embarked on an English literature degree with the Open University.

All of the people I admire in showbiz are very, very smart,' he said in 2. I'd like to write something on my own and the only way I'm going to do that is if I have confidence and faith in my own ability. The Open University is helping me to judge my work.'.

Having been awarded his BA in 2. Lenny decided to take on an arguably even greater challenge and master the Bard. Unlike Dawn, whose only experience of Shakespeare was when she donned huge ears and a furry tail to play Bottom in a 2.