Katy Hill has revealed her body confidence was shattered at the height of her Blue Peter fame after being told she was “fat” by a senior BBC producer.
The TV presenter, now 54, joined the flagship children’s programme in 1995 and quickly became known for her fearless stunts – from flying with the Red Arrows to parachute jumps.
But behind the scenes she said she was left devastated by remarks about her size that made her feel uncomfortable on screen.
Speaking on the Shall I Delete That? podcast, Hill recalled: “When I landed the job, somebody – and he’s a really lovely guy, so I won’t name him – but he was high up on the show, and he said, ‘Now, you need to think about it because you’re a bigger girl and you don’t carry yourself very well on camera.’
I was a size 12-14. Imagine going on telly in front of 15 million people already terrified and then hearing that.”
Hill said she never developed an eating disorder but admitted many of her peers at the time struggled with bulimia, anorexia or used drugs to stay thin. She described communal changing rooms where women whispered about cellulite or criticised one another’s appearance, adding: “It was so hard because I always want to big women up.”
The former presenter said the comment stayed with her throughout her TV career, leading her to stand at angles on camera to make her shoulders look smaller.
Even after leaving Blue Peter in 2001 for a stint on Live & Kicking, she faced pressure from her agent to pose for a “sexier” magazine shoot – which she reluctantly did in swimwear.
Hill later discovered the published images had been heavily edited, leaving her unrecognisable.
Now based in Oxfordshire with her husband, former presenter Trey Farley, and their two teenage children, Hill has retrained as a life coach helping women with confidence.
She said: “Back in the day, I was inspiring girls to play bigger by jumping out of planes. Now I support those same girls as women. There’s a you-shaped hole in the world – if you don’t step into it, that impact is lost.”
Her revelations come weeks after fellow former Blue Peter host Yvette Fielding alleged she was sexually assaulted by Rolf Harris while working on the programme in the late Eighties.
