TV's Tan France beaten up in Doncaster when he was five in shocking racist attack

The Queer Eye host, who has regularly spoken out about his difficulties growing up as an Asian homosexual in Doncaster, revealed the horrific attack when appearing on TV’s This Morning.

Host Holly Willoughby fought back tears as Tan opened up about the horrifying racism he suffered as a child.

Tan, who was appearing on the show to talk about his new documentary on colourism, revealed he was beaten up and left for dead when he was just five years old.

He said a group of men attacked him on his way to school because he is Pakistani.

Tan now lives Salt Lake City, Utah, with his husband Rob and their son Ismail.

He explained: “It’s the reason I don’t live in the UK now. I was walking to school, I was on my own. It was literally a block away, not even two minutes.

“My mum was working every hour that god sends, she was an immigrant, my brother who would normally got to school with me was sick, so I had to walk alone. A group of men beat me and left me for dead. It was purely because I was a Pakistani in England.”

Fellow presenter Phillip Schofield revealed his shock and Tan continued: “It was common, it happened very regularly.

"Part of the reason I wanted to bleach [my hair] is because I wanted people not to realise at first glance that I was Asian, I thought maybe if they just thought I was foreign they would leave me alone.”

Fighting back tears, Holly said: “I’m so sorry that’s horrible.”

Tan said: “When you have kids you start to realise how disgusting it is. When I was a kid I thought ‘it’s just a matter of fact’.”

Devastated, Holly told him: “You don’t have to have kids to realise that’s disgusting.”

He is now fashion expert for the Netflix series Queer Eye which sees five gay men give straight men a makeover.