A new DAWN for Lenny: One year after his divorce, friends say he's 'very happy' with theatre producer Lisa

By Ben Todd and Colin Fernandez


Stepping out in public: Henry and Miss Makin have been dating for 'several months'


Finding success as a stage actor is not the only reason why Lenny Henry has an extra spring in his step these days.

He has found new love following the break-up of his marriage to Dawn French, the Mail can reveal.

Henry, 53, is seeing producer Lisa Makin, 45, a high-profile figure in the theatre industry.


The dark-haired Miss Makin bears more than a passing resemblance to Miss French – particularly now the comic actress has dramatically lost weight.

A close friend of Henry told the Mail: ‘Lenny and Lisa have been dating for several months. They are very happy together.’ The couple are said to have met through mutual friends.

Henry is currently starring in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre.

He and fellow cast members went on an outing this week to the acclaimed revival of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off at the Old Vic – and Miss Makin went too.

A fellow theatregoer said: ‘I saw Lenny when he was leaving the auditorium with a woman and, for a moment, I thought it was the new slimmed-down Dawn French. Lisa was touchy feely with him. She was standing close to him and touching his arm a lot.’
Miss Makin was named as one of the 20 most powerful women in British theatre by Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 2009.

Henry found fame as a teenager in 1975, when he won the TV talent show New Faces. He worked as a stand-up comedian and appeared on the cult Saturday-morning programme Tiswas plus Three of a Kind, with Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield, before being given his own BBC show.

He met Miss French in 1980 while working with the Comic Strip team. They married in 1984 and have a 19-year-old adopted daughter, Billie.

They separated in October 2009 and their divorce was finalised a year later. Since then they have both lost a great deal of weight.

Miss French is more than six-and-a-half stone lighter, through healthy eating and long walks with her dog close to her Cornwall home.

Arm-in-arm: The couple stroll near the theatre


And Henry shed three stone while preparing for the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy Of Errors, for which he has received rave reviews. The training regime involved four hours of daily exercise before rehearsals.

Henry, who won awards for his Othello in 2009, said: ‘It’s like being in the Olympics – you have to train. There’s a lot going on in Shakespeare.’


source:dailymail