In an interview with British Vogue, actor Thandie Newton said she is reverting to the original spelling of her name which is Thandiwe.
For over three decades, Newton born Melanie Thandiwe Newton has been known as Thandie after the ‘w’ in her name was dropped from her first acting credit. Speaking on the decision to have the original spelling of her name in future films, Thandie Newton said:
That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine.
Thandiwe Newton was born in London to a British father, Nick, and a Zimbabwean mother, Nyasha. Narrating her life in Cornwall where she grew up she said:
We may as well have been the first Black people anyone had ever seen. We didn’t have conditioner. We didn’t have anything.
She went to a Catholic primary school run by nuns with her brother. Thandiwe Newton said she was once excluded from a class photograph because she was spotting cornrows and made to feel like an in-house missionary project.
Related:
More: British Vogue