Dawn French: Lenny Henry and I are best friends despite divorce

Comedy star Dawn French said she remained "the best of mates" with ex-husband Lenny Henry despite the couple's divorce earlier this week.

They were granted a "quickie" divorce on Monday after 27 years of marriage on the grounds of Henry's "unreasonable behaviour".

French told ITV1's Lorraine: "I think we've made a very grown-up decision to change from a marriage into a really good friendship. We talked about it for a year and made the decision a year ago; we just stayed very quiet about it for a long time to make sure we were doing the right thing.

"But as it is, we're the best of mates. We're meeting up for lunch today and we talk every day on the phone, and we just made a decision to change from that to that - to free each other up a little bit. And I think we will go on forever being very good friends as a result of it. So I don't think there's anything to feel sorry about."

She added she was happy to be single but admitted to having had "a couple of nibbles" on the dating scene.

The couple met in 1981 and married in 1984. They adopted their daughter Billie in 1991.

No details of the unreasonable behaviour were given in divorce documents which were made public.