Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina speaks out over ‘racist’ confrontation with a ‘hostile’ driver who hit her car and says ‘black and brown people are being treated as conditional citizens’

Sir Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba has recalled a ‘racist’ interraction with a ‘hostile’ driver in London who backed up into her parked car. 

Taking to TikTok, the Canadian model, 36, said that the driver ‘immediately’ asked her where she was from, which she said highlighted how ‘people feel increasingly comfortable treating black and brown people as conditional citizens.’

‘Something happened a couple days ago that is just not sitting right with me,’ she began the video. ‘And I don’t usually come online when I’m still sort of like flustered or upset.’

‘But this woman backed up into my parked car and when I got out to speak to her about the interaction it immediately became hostile.’

‘She very quickly asked me “where are you from?”, keep in mind this woman backed up into my parked car, and I said ‘Canadian’ and then she asked again.

‘And I think a lot of people know what that question means when they’re asked in a tone.’

Sir Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba has recalled a ‘racist’ interaction with a ‘hostile’ driver in London who backed up into her parked car

Sabrina reasoned that the woman ‘wasn’t asking for my biography, she was trying to change the terms of the interaction and suddenly it wasn’t about the fact that she had hit my car. It was about whether or not I belonged enough to like hold her accountable.’

She said ‘this is the part that really bothered me, explaining that she needed to call it out ‘because racism isn’t always theatrical.’

‘Sometimes it works by redirecting conversations because you ask for accountability and suddenly my presence became the issue.

Sabrina, who has lived with Hackney-born Idris in London for the duration of their nine year relationship, was keen to discuss the interaction in the context of the current political climate in the UK.

‘I think we need to be honest about the climate in the UK right now,’ she told her followers. ‘When a country spends years publicly debating who belongs or who is really from here or who is too foreign, too demanding or like too ungrateful or too much of a burden… That language doesn’t ever stay abstract.’

‘It becomes social permission. Permission for people like her, and it tells people that their suspicions are legitimate. Their resentment to them becomes reasonable and their contempt is like some kind of screwed-up common sense.’

‘And then it shows up in ordinary life like in a car park or in a queue when a stranger’s tone when they ask you “where are you from?” It’s completely wrong.’

‘And they still feel the right to interrogate you. They still feel entitled to interrogate you and you know people are gonna say “maybe she was just having a bad day”.’

Taking to TikTok , the Canadian model, 36, said that the driver ‘immediately’ asked her where she was from, which she said highlighted how ‘people feel increasingly comfortable treating black and brown people as conditional citizens’

Sabrina reiterated ‘she backed up into me and then questioned my rights to question her. She tried to drive away and this is what frustrates me.’

‘Incidents can kind of get dismissed as like personality but misunderstanding is not just misunderstanding anymore, it’s starting to feel like a pattern’.

‘That pattern is what’s making people feel increasingly comfortable treating black and brown people as conditional citizens as conditional neighbours or conditional Londoners.’

‘And you can live here and work here and contribute here and build a life here but in the wrong moment with the wrong person belonging is still treated like something they have the rights to question and I think that’s what upset me.’

‘Not the car, there is very little damage. It’s that reminder that for some people that right to take up space is still negotiable.

‘So I’m tired of like pretending that that’s small because these moments might be ordinary and maybe they’re not so harmful and in some way but they are hurtful.

‘And right now I think a lot of us can feel it and the mood is shifting and people are becoming bolder and the quiet part is getting louder. And I don’t think we should keep quietly pretending that we haven’t noticed.

A proud Sabrina was by the Luther star’s side earlier this month when he was awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours for his significant services to young people 

‘And for somebody to back up into my car, try to drive off and when I stop them question my right to be able to question them.’

She concluded the video by asking: ‘I mean what are we even doing anymore?’ 

Sabrina, a former model, now concentrates on her role as co-founder of S’ABLE Labs, her and Idris’ inclusive, melanin-rich skincare and wellness brand alongside her work as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

She is also working alongside her husband on anti-knife crime campaigning, including their new project – creating a multi-use cultural venue in North Kensington inspired by the kind of multicultural environment Idris grew up around in Hackney. 

A proud Sabrina was by the Luther star’s side earlier this month when he was awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours for his significant services to young people.

In 2022, Sir Idris founded the Elba Hope Foundation, which champions community empowerment, education, youth advocacy, and sustainable development.

As the busy couple pour their time into the advocacy and charity work, Idris this week ruled himself out of taking over the role of James Bond, insisting audiences ‘won’t go for a black male’ playing the iconic role. 

In a new cover story for British GQ’s Heroes Issue, the actor said of the long-running reports: ‘It was never legit. It was always just a rumour.’ 

He explained how the rumours started at the Italian premiere of Quantum Of Solace, held a day after the 2008 US presidential election; Daniel Craig said that Barack Obama’s victory suggested we had reached the time for a Black Bond. 

Idris says fans simply took Daniel’s words and ran with it: ‘I’ve always felt that it’s not a realistic thing. James Bond was written how he was written for a reason,’ he added. ‘But I was complimented by it.’

Idris then said he doesn’t believe that every character needs to be revitalised for a new generation.

‘I think, in realistic terms, some markets just don’t go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won’t [all] go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond,’ Idris said.

‘That’s not what they like in their culture. Period. Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let’s not try and make it woke. I think you’ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don’t try and answer the world’s taste. Just be Bond.’