Ruth Langsford has revealed the sexist behaviour she had to endure on her way to success as one of Britain's most beloved television presenters. Appearing on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast, the This Morning host opened up about her career, which had started in the nineties in regional TV.
Since then, the 60-year-old has helped front two of daytime's biggest ITV shows, as well as running her own fashion range via QVC.
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Discussing how women are always called "bossy" in the workplace, Ruth recalled an incident where a male colleague tried grabbing her bum. "I remember years ago before I was on TV, when I was a transmission assistant, we had to take these big trays of tea around at the evenings for the VT and telecine engineers... it was all men," she shared. "We had a little kitchenette and for some reason it was deemed to be my job (as a) woman.
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"I remember taking this tray round and a guy pinched my arse, and I literally put the tray down, I slapped his tea down, and said: 'If you ever touch me again, I'll break your [explicit] arm' and I marched out... It just came out."
She added: "Maybe he was used to doing the old feely bum-bum and no-one would say anything, but he wasn't banking on me."
Ruth hosts This Morning with husband Eamonn Holmes on Fridays
Ruth then admitted she feared that she would be reprimanded or lose her job for standing up for herself. The TV star hosts This Morning alongside husband Eamonn Holmes, also 60, every Friday. She also appears on the Loose Women panel.
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Both Ruth and Eamonn previously opened up about their working relationship while talking to HELLO!. In April 2019, Ruth said: "The challenges are what everyone faces when they work together, it's like two people who want to drive a car and one wants to go left and one wants to go right, and you have to compromise.
"And you know, Eamonn's not a team player really – he likes to be out there doing his thing. And he has to compromise and work with me so it's a challenge all the time."
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