Janet Street-Porter has recalled how a colleague once locked her in his flat and threw himself on her early on in her career but she says she would have never reported it because she feared it was ‘career suicide’
Janet Street-Porter has recalled how a colleague once locked her in his flat and threw himself on her.
The Loose Women presenter spoke out about the incident which took place when she was just starting out in journalism, recalling how she had been invited over to a former colleague’s flat for some drinks before they all went out together with other friends, too.
Janet spoke to her fellow panellists about the incident following on from the overnight trial with Donald Trump, in which he was found by a jury to have sexually assaulted columnist E. Jean Carroll in a rape and defamation trial.
Janet detailed the incident, which happened early in her career (
Image:
ITV)
Speaking on the show today, Janet didn’t identify the man but recalled: “One of my colleagues on another newspaper at the time, a very successful man with a high profile who was a bit of a household name, invited me and my husband out for drinks with some other people… He called in the afternoon and said we’re all going to meet at mine for a drink beforehand.
“So I naively went thinking that other people would be there [my husband wasn’t] … When I got there, he locked me in the flat and chased me around and threw himself on me and I was so annoyed with myself. I hadn’t expected it.”
→ Swipe to see more articles
Janet said she had to just “laugh it off” at work as she explained the man was a respected former colleague.
She spoke to her Loose Women colleagues today (
Image:
ITV)
“At work you just had to laugh it off, but I had knew this guy for quite a few months, probably a couple of years beforehand, and he was highly intelligent and really respected,” she explained.
Janet said she didn’t see him socially after that time but never considered reporting it as she feared it would be “career suicide” if she said what had happened to her as the group discussed whether the ‘silent generation’ felt they could speak up now.
In the Trump case, nine jurors announced their verdict and found Trump did not rape Ms Carroll but did sexually abuse her, and awarded her $5million (£3.9million) in damages. Ms Carrol, 79, and her lawyer Roberta Kaplan did not speak to reporters outside the courtroom but, within minutes of the decision, Mr Trump reacted with fury maintaining he didn’t even know Ms Carroll.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”, he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
