The Countryfile presenter Helen Skelton has said she was groped live on air by an interviewee while she was pregnant.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, which reports that the “incident happened during coverage of a sporting event in 2014”, Skelton said: “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. You want to bring solutions, not problems. We are all ‘Happy, happy’.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Skelton, who hosted BBC coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics, declined to name the culprit but said radio presenter Colin Murray reported him.
She added: “He (Colin) kicked off and said that needs dealing with. It was handled brilliantly because of that. I’d never thought about complaining.”
The Daily Mail believes it has found the incident in question, saying Skelton was “interviewing Scottish darts player, Ross Montgomery, live on BT Sport, at the BDO World Darts Championship in Hampshire”.
A video posted online at the time “appears to show Skelton looking irked, after Montgomery touches her behind”, adds the paper.
Appearing to confirm the incident, Montgomery told the Daily Mail: “She wasn’t groped. It was nothing more than a friendly slap on the bottom.”
“I was spoken to at the time. She was apologised to and she didn’t make a big deal of it.”
“But using the word grope, that’s a bit much. My wife was in the crowd and it wasn’t a grope.”
Skelton, who was a part of the BBC’s Olympic coverage as well as appearing on CBBC, also discussed the gender pay gap in the interview.
Skelton said the industry was “inherently unfair” and she was not happy with what she and female colleagues had been paid. She said: “But I signed that contract because, the minute you don’t, there are 10 people behind you that will.”
