TV presenter Helen Skelton has revealed she was groped live on air by an interviewee when she was pregnant.
Skelton, who appears on BBC1’s Countryfile and also fronts BBC Sport’s swimming coverage, said the incident happened during a sporting event in 2014, although she did not reveal the programme or the identity of the person who groped her.
Skelton said fellow presenter Colin Murray had “kicked off”, which meant that the incident “was handled brilliantly”, with the man in question being punished.
Skelton, who grew up in Cumbria and presented Blue Peter until 2013, told the Telegraph: “Basically, this guy grabbed me on the arse when I was presenting live telly. I felt really awkward about it. I was pregnant at the time as well. I didn’t really know what to do.
“It’s intimidating and you don’t want to be the person who is being difficult and awkward. That’s just the culture that television breeds. No one wants to be difficult. You want to bring solutions, not problems. We are all ‘happy, happy.
“[Colin] kicked off and said that needs dealing with,” she said. “It was handled brilliantly because of that. I’d never thought about complaining. I don’t want it to become my identity. The man in question was punished. There was a line drawn under it, and that was that.”
Skelton also spoke about the gender pay gap in media.
“We have to be very careful that this doesn’t become a winging old boring argument. It needs to remain relevant. We need to – and I know this sounds awful – keep the argument sexy. We have to keep it in the public eye.”
