George Alagiah adopted a posh accent to deter racists

George Alagiah adopted a posh accent in order to deter racist bullies.

The 64-year-old newsreader has revealed he consciously adopted a fancy accent during his time at St John\'s College - an independent Roman Catholic school in Hampshire - after moving to the UK at the age of 11.

George - who was born in Sri Lanka and spent part of his childhood in Ghana - shared: "I did not know I was black or brown or anything.

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"We used to have communal showers in school and I got teased and taunted about my colour.

"But, I think in the immigrant, there is a sink-or-swim attitude. I told myself I was not going to sink. I didn\'t really have a choice. I was on my own in a boarding school.

"I left a family in Ghana where there were banana trees and pineapple bushes in our garden to a school playground which was all Tarmac - and I had to fit in."

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George can still recall being "chased by skinheads" during his younger years.

And the veteran newsreader admits his accent is a response to the racism he\'s faced.

He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I think somewhere in that immigrant mind you maybe choose ... unconsciously the things that will allow you to fit in. This accent was one answer to that."

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Last month, meanwhile, George admitted he lives with "uncertainty all the time" amid his cancer battle.

However, the presenter feels his ongoing health issues have actually helped him to overcome coronavirus.

George - who was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014 - shared: "I can only speak for myself but I suspect as with most people living with cancer you live with uncertainty all the time.

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"You go from scan to scan every three months and you never know what that can turn up. In that sense I found it put the Covid business into perspective.

"Mentally it didn\'t worry me as much as you might imagine."