Fans of Loose Women are used to hearing confessions and revelations – it’s not called Loose Women for nothing.
But no one was expecting what Janet Street-Porter had to say on today’s instalment of the ITV show.
The usually confident broadcaster, 70, seemed visibly shaken as she recounted the tale of when she was raped as a 22-year-old.
The room hushed as she described her ordeal: “I’d arranged to meet friends for dinner, and I got a call from a really high-profile journalist who was meant to be there, who told me we were going to meet at his flat for drinks rather than the restaurant.
“He locked the door behind me and we went into the living room.
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“I was 22 years old and this man literally threw himself at me, and went for me.
“He could not understand I would not have sex with him; whatever I said wasn’t getting through.”
Janet went on to say that she managed to shake her attacker off and flee down the corridor to safety. But it took her a long time to get over the incident.
She kept it a secret from her husband at the time, and revealed that she didn’t tell anyone for “eight or nine years”.
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As if that experience wasn’t bad enough, she recalled a later incident in which she was asked for sex by her boss – while her husband was sitting having dinner with them.
“He said he would give me preferential treatment if I had sex with him,” she said.
Last year fellow panellist Saira Khan revealed on the show that she had been molested by her uncle when she was a child.
The presenter broke down as she recounted how he’d assaulted her when she was a 13-year-old schoolgirl, doing her homework.
“I am a strong woman,” she said. “But that day I had my innocence taken away.”