Mr Motivator reveals he faced 10 years of resistance over his race while trying to launch TV career

Fitness guru Mr Motivator has revealed that he faced resistance while trying to launch his TV career, as he was told he wouldn’t appeal to viewers as a black man.

The 67-year-old star, who shot to fame in the early 1990s with his workout segments on GMTV, has recounted how he faced a decade of resistance from TV bosses before finally getting his big break.

The Jamaican-born TV personality, real name Derrick Evans, told the Radio Times: ‘When I walked into my very first job interview and the guy said to me, “Why didn’t you tell me you were black?”, I replied, “Why didn’t you tell me you were white?”

‘Later, When television came along, it took me ten years to get a break as an on-screen fitness trainer.

‘Every time I went to the studios, the guys would say, “Look, for a white lady with two kids, a black guy on TV would never work.” But I kept on persevering.’

The star spoke out amid the continuing global protests over the killing of George Floyd in police custody, as he admitted that he found the numerous deaths of black people at the hands of law enforcement ‘very depressing’.

And as Black Lives Matter demonstrators are now facing far right protesters, the TV personality insists that the issues stand a strong chance of being dissipated if more time is taken for people to communicate with one another. 

He said: ‘In the lockdown, many of us have spent more time talking to people and we need to continue that connection… We have to start accepting each other more.

‘There has been some progress, but it’s going to take a lot of rebuilding of trust, we’ve got to start recognising and accepting each other. Maybe I’m an idealist, but if we do that, I am hopeful that we can actually step back from the edge.’

Mr Motivator was born in Jamaica but was adopted aged three months before moving to Leicester at the age of ten.

He shot to fame in the early 1990s as Mr Motivator with a slot on GMTV, and recently returned to screens on BBC One to ‘offer expert advice to get people moving during the coronavirus’.

‘Now more than ever it is important to keep our bodies and minds healthy,’ he told The Telegraph. ‘Everybody say: ‘Yeah, let’s get happy and be wicked at home!’

The programme offers audiences ‘information and company, to keep viewers upbeat while in isolation’.

Included are tips on how to keep healthy, including how to boost the immune system, beat boredom and stay active.

He divides his time between Jamaica and Manchester, where he lives with wife Sandra and daughter Abigail, who has Type 1 diabetes.

Read Mr Motivator’s full interview in the new issue of the Radio Times, out now.