Vanessa Feltz says Rolf Harris groped other famous women as she recalls assault

24 May 2023 , 10:57

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Vanessa Feltz says Rolf Harris groped other famous women as she recalls assault

On Wednesday's This Morning, Vanessa Felt spoke out on being groped by Rolf Harris live on TV in 1996 on the Big Breakfast bed after the disgraced TV star and convicted paedophile died at the age of 93.

Vanessa recalled to Alison Hammond and Craig Doyle how Rolf began to scrunch up the bottom of her dress pushing his hand higher and higher up his leg during the interview.

She said: "I was absolutely shocked because it's Rolf Harris for goodness sake that we all adored and also it's live on telly and it's a daytime lovely show with lots of kids watching.

"You've got his wife there so I couldn't say, 'Get your hand off my leg or Stop touching me or [slap him away]. How could I in the middle of a live interview? And of course, he knew that, he knew that he was doing it to me in those circumstances where I couldn't do anything."

Interjecting, Alison said: "I'm so sorry you went through this, this is awful, it's an assault."

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Vanessa recalled the horrific incident (ITV)

"So in the end, I took a cushion and tried to put it between us, that didn't make any difference and the hand kept going up and up and up to the point where if I didn't do something it was going to go inside my underwear. I did what TV presenters are not really allowed to do, which is suddenly throw to a break."

"We went to a break and then I jumped off the bed. He didn't say anything, I didn't say anything. For all I knew I was the only person that that had ever happened to I didn't know, nobody had ever said a bad word about him in front of me. I didn't want to upset his wife and maybe damage a marriage so when the break was over I just got back on the bed and finished the interview."

Alison remarked: "Horrible, I'm sorry you had to go through that," as Vanessa replied: "I was fine, I was married, I wasn't a child," but Alison hit back: "It doesn't matter you should never have been put in that situation."

Alison and Craig were appalled by Vanessa's account (ITV)

Vanessa explained she told her husband and one of her friends at the time before being contacted by the police in 2013 after they had seen the footage of the incident.

The presenter added: "I can't tell you the number of famous women, I won't say their names obviously because none of them came forward. who said to me, 'Oh my god, it happened to me.'"

After being asked how she felt about his death, Vanessa went on to conclude that her Jewish background has led her to try and forgive but her main hope is that "nobody gets the chance to [abuse] like that again".

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Charlotte McIntyre