Wayne Brady recalls fearing for daughter's safety when she set off home alarm
Wayne Brady panicked when his teenage daughter, Maile, accidentally set the alarm off in their Malibu home.
“I freaked out because I was giving her the code and for whatever reason she put it in wrong and it wouldn’t accept and then the alarm company (said) we are sending armed response right now,” Brady revealed during a recent interview with "Access Hollywood," in which he shared his own experiences of racism.
“I was so worried that my daughter could not explain in the heat of the moment, ‘Yes, it’s my house,’” Brady, 48, recalled. “I told her, ‘Get out of the house and run around the corner and down the street and go to your mom’s house!'"
Maile, who is now 17, was confused by her dad's reaction at the time.
“I was fearful for my little girl, and I placed all that fear on her,” the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” star explained.
Shortly after the incident, Brady and his ex-wife Mandie Taketa had an important talk with Maile about racial injustice.
“Now fast forward, she’s 17. She’s head of her school’s black student union, she’s a little activist and she knows her history,” Brady said. “It’s a conversation I’m glad I had because every young black person that we send out in the world, including her boyfriend — I worry about her boyfriend when he drives — we need to arm (them) with knowledge because it’s just necessary.”
On Sunday, Brady opened up to his Instagram followers about how his “heart starts to beat a little faster” when he’s behind the wheel of a car and spots a police officer.
“It’s real. This fear is real. The fear that someone can not like you from a distance or have a problem with the way you look,” he said. “This is a feeling I felt ever since I started driving when I was 18 and I’m 48, but I’m more frightened now then I was then. I want to make it home to my daughter.”