The TV sport presenter also talked of her guilt at not standing up to her sexist colleagues.
Asked on today’s Desert Island Discs about the atmosphere when she moved into broadcasting, Gabby, 49, says: “There were some brilliant, encouraging, supportive, fantastic men there. But there were those who are the alphas, who throw around insecurities by saying and doing things which aren’t appropriate.
“A certain guy who was a presenter shouted my name in the office as I walked past, saying I had a great a*** – but it would be one of those a**** that would be down by my knees by the time I was in my 30s. That kind of thing. And another who shouted across the office how many Premiership footballers did I have notched up on my bedpost?
“I always feel quite uncomfortable when I think back, talking about it because there’s parts of me that feels guilty about not dealing with it head on. I think I could have said more at the time.”
BBC star Gabby, who has also worked at Sky Sports, ITV and Metro FM, added: “My idea was I would keep working really hard and prove them wrong. I’ve always had that in me.”
She also tells Lauren Laverne that one of her “most important decisions” spared her family from the Bradford City Stadium Disaster when her dad Terry Yorath was assistant manager.
In May 1985, 56 football fans died when a discarded cigarette ignited rubbish under a wooden stand at Valley Parade, sparking a terrible fire. Gabby, who was 12 at the time, and her mum Christine had been at the game against Lincoln City.
Just before half-time, she decided to follow her mother to the lounge. She said: “That was one of the most important decisions I ever made in my life. Because as the eldest I led us up there.
“Within a minute-and-a-half, somebody opened the door and told us all to get out because a fire had started in the stand.”
Gabby also speaks of the sudden death of her 15-year-old brother Daniel, who suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and had a “catastrophic heart attack” when she was 19.
She said: “I went to Durham [University] and I thought, ‘Every day is for grabbing hold of and doing things and trying things’.
“I suppose I was running away a little bit from the stillness that would eventually come and learning to handle grief.”
●Desert Island Discs is on Radio 4 today at 11.15am.
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