The Chase’s Paul Sinha: ‘My mum found out I was gay through an act of emotional sabotage’

The Chase star Paul Sinha has described the “very brutal” way his mum discovered he was gay, after a drunk friend at medical school outed him over the phone.

“My mum found out I was gay through an act of emotional sabotage when one of my friends in medical school got drunk at a party, rang her up and let her know,” the Chaser reflects. “So that wasn’t ideal, and it took quite a long time for the wounds of that very brutal revelation to heal up. But heal up they did.

“I think the thing that would most surprise the 16-year-old me is that I found myself not only a boyfriend, but a husband. And that my mum and dad would enjoy the wedding day thoroughly and have a great time, and would be totally approving of the whole thing.”

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For the latest Letter to My Younger Self feature in this week’s Big Issue (26 August), Sinha also recounts on a nasty racial mugging he experienced as a teen. “When I was 16, I went to watch my beloved Liverpool FC win the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium,” he says. “It was a bittersweet experience for me because it was great seeing my team, but I was racially bullied on the train up.

“I was mugged for the first time, by Liverpool fans who found my posh accent immensely amusing. At one point they asked me, because of my ethnic background, whether I actually spoke any English at all. Then they took my watch at the end as a sort of symbol of their victory over me, just to humiliate me. But I refused to let it spoil my enjoyment of the game, because Liverpool beat Everton 3-1.”

Following a career in stand-up comedy, Paul Sinha joined ITV quiz show The Chase in 2011 as the ‘Sinnerman’, tasked with out-quizzing contestants before they can reach a cash prize. “I took to it like a duck to water. I just loved it,” he tells the Big Issue.

“I love meeting people, getting to know them, becoming friends with them, finding out what makes them tick. I love the competitiveness. I loved the fact that I could be competitive at something, because I always wanted to be good at sport, and I wasn’t able to be.”

Paul Sinha was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019. A consultant saw the early symptoms of the condition while watching him compete in Channel 4 gameshow Taskmaster. “The way I look at my Parkinson’s diagnosis is to be as positive as I can be,” Sinha says. “That’s not an act of defiance or courage, it’s just an act of pragmatism.

“I’ve got a life to lead. I’ve got a living to make, and the more things I can do within the parameters of my illness, the better living I’ll make.”

Read the full interview with Paul Sinha in this week’s Big Issue, out now. Find your local vendor to buy a copy, or subscribe online, at bigissue.com.

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