Janet Street-Porter opened up about abuse she suffered during the early years of her career, recalling being mocked for her accent.
The Loose Women panellist, 76, shared her experiences on Monday’s lunchtime show and revealed she used to be called names by her male colleagues.
Her anecdotes came during a segment on hurtful comments where each presenter shared a time they had been met with harmful words over the years.
The red-headed TV personality chimed in with her story and said that she was abused for the way she spoke and labelled as ‘common’.
Janet explained on the ITV daytime show: ‘When I started as a journalist and I went on the radio in 1971, the outcry about my accent was ludicrous.
‘I had all these blokes, posh white blokes of a certain age, saying I sounded common, I was unintelligent.
‘I was, you know, I should be ‘put down’, one man said if he saw me crossing the road he would run me over.
‘And it really had an impact on me.’
She had spoken about comments she had received over her accent in the past and revealed on the show in 2020: ‘I have had people mimicking my accent to my face and they come up to me in a supermarket or something.
‘They say ‘my daughter does a really good you’ and then some person is brought up and does me and it’s not very funny at all.’
The former musical star went on to admit she doesn’t let anyone lift her as a result of being called ‘heavy’ in her youth and listed some examples of times the harsh words trickled into her adult life.
She said that during her stint On Dancing On Ice, it took her a long time to allow her partner to elevate her while they learnt routines for the ice skating competition show.
Coleen admitted she wouldn’t allow Stuart Widdall to pull her over his head as she was worried she would be too heavy for him to carry.
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.
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