Romesh Ranganathan's heartbreaking family history after home life suddenly collapsed

Currently awaiting to be dealt his fate on The Celebrity Traitors, Romesh Ranganathan is one of many comedians in this series.

And before he landed this gig on the hit BBC show and was put into a murderous game of hide and seek, the 48-year-old has been on our screens for quite a while.

He worked as a maths teacher before working his way up the comedy circuit to host and feature in a number of shows and films.

In Ranganathan’s work we’ve seen and heard a fair bit of his legendary mum, Shanthi, and bits of his family life with wife Leesa and their three boys.

Heartbreakingly, when he was just 12 himself, his dad, Ranga, fell into financial trouble and couldn’t keep up the mortgage repayments on their home.

Romesh has been on the comedy scene for well over a decade. (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

The Celebrity Traitors star previously told Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: “And they couldn't afford, even with my scholarship, they still couldn't afford the fees at this school I was going to."

And it later became clear that his dad was having an affair and when he disappeared, Ranganathan had to ask the ‘other women’ where he was.

“She tells us that my dad had been arrested three days previously, and he had been involved in some sort of fraud case. I don't know why we'd not heard, why he'd not got in touch, but this lady knew,” he recalled.

His dad ended up going to prison for just under two years, the day before the comedian’s birthday.

“I think it's my 15th birthday. And so my friends are having a party for me. I just went and pretended that wasn't going on because you want some normalcy,” he said.

"Because for a while, we moved out of the house, and then a counsellor gave us a room in a bed and breakfast."

Romesh and his mum, Shanthi, who often appears on his podcast. (Instagram/romeshranga)

Ranganathan recalled his mum getting a job as a cleaner to provide for him and his brother.

And his dad came back to the family home following his release.

“On my dad's 60th birthday, by that time, our relationship had really kind of improved. I'd had kids at that point, and I saw the way that my dad was being with my children,” he added.

“I was like, I've never seen this side of my dad, and we're in a really good place. My memory of my dad is of like a flawed tornado." His father passed away in 2011.

Rob and Romesh have proven to be a duo in the castle. (BBC)

Ranganathan has also been open about struggling with his mental health as he said on the episode last year that he is in ‘one of the best places I've ever been in my life’.

He noted that he often felt conflicted about how much to share publicly: “You’ve got to be careful because it's triggering [for other people].

"The way that I try and tackle that is to talk about it, I'm trying to normalise feeling like that, not that it is normal, but I'm trying to destigmatise it to make the conversation normal.”

Ranganathan first got into comedy in the early 2010s and has since presented comedy shows such as Judge Romesh and The Ranganation as well as hosting the revival of The Weakest Link.

Since 2019, he’s appeared in Rob & Romesh Vs… with fellow Faithful Rob Beckett and made his West End stage debut last December.