See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy JOANNA CRAWLEY, DEPUTY SHOWBIZ EDITOR (NEWS) Published: 12:52 BST, 30 August 2026 | Updated: 13:01 BST, 30 August 2026
Dame Meera Syal has revealed she was sexually assaulted in her mid-twenties by an older actor who promised her he could boost her career.Speaking about the 1980s traumatic attack for the first time, the Goodness Gracious Me star, 65, explained how she didn't report the assault because the thought of putting her parents through a criminal trial was too much to bear.Speaking to The Sunday Times Magazine, Syal explained how at the time she was singing in a jazz band in a Covent Garden restaurant and applying for waitressing jobs after her post-university stage acting jobs dried up. She was about to leave London and go back home to the West Midlands when an Asian actor she knew invited her to a party at his house in London. Syal and the magazine give no further details of her attacker in the account, aside from that he was 'an older Asian man, almost the same age as her father.' When she arrived at the house there was only one other person there who left shortly afterwards leaving a confused Syal alone with the man. Dame Meera Syal has revealed she was sexually assaulted in her mid-twenties by an older actor who promised her he could boost her career (pictured in 2025)Fearing it would be impolite to leave, she stayed for dinner, admitting she felt safe because he was an older Asian man. The magazine then reports 'straight after dinner, they were mid-conversation when he pounced on her and tried to rape her. Syal froze in fear but managed to clamp her legs together; he carried on and sexually assaulted her regardless.'Syal left afterwards, and chose not to report the crime and didn't tell anyone.'This is the first time I've spoken about this publicly,' Syal says now. 'It completely changed my life and the direction of my career. I could have given up, but instead I sought out a group of south Asian writers.''They encouraged me to write more, they found me a place to live, they healed me and awakened me politically.' She says the assault ultimately led her to write the strong female characters that featured in the BBC2 sketch show Goodness Gracious Me which ran from 1998-2001.The show, which tratransitioned from a BBC Radio 4 series, was her career breakthrough. She joined the writing team and was also cast as various characters in the hugely successful sketch comedy show. Syal explained how at the time of the 1980s attack she was singing in a jazz band in a Covent Garden restaurant and applying for waitressing jobs after her stage acting jobs dried up (pictured in 1987 in the play Serious Money) Syal has now penned her first non-fiction book, with Vigilauntie: A Memoir - Innit? set to be published this autumn.The book delves into her family, heritage, and the influential women in her life. On the autobiography, the writer and actress explained: 'I have sat around so many tables with friends where the conversations have been illuminating, joyous, heart-breaking and sometimes, life changing.'And I have walked away thinking, I really should have written some of that down'.After a few years away from the TV screen, with her last screen role being an appearance in BBC drama The Split in 2022, she is currently rehearsing for The Children, which will open at the Lyric Hammersmith on the same day as the release of her upcoming memoir.
