Vanessa Feltz reveals heartbreaking reason she kept quiet as Rolf Harris assaulted her live on air

Vanessa Feltz "didn't want to upset" Rolf Harris' wife when he assaulted her live on air.

The 62-year-old star was presenting 'The Big Breakfast' and interviewing the late entertainer during a segment that took place on a bed in 1996 , and simply called for an ad break when he began assaulting her because she could see his "adoring" wife Alwen Hughes across the studio.

Writing in her new memoir 'Vanessa Bares All', she said: "I put the cushion I was leaning on between us. It made no difference. Rolf kept talking. His hand kept moving. His adoring wife was three feet away. We were live on TV. He was laughing as if everything was completely normal. I knew I couldn’t yell: 'Rolf Harris is assaulting me!' I didn’t want to upset Alwen and disturb our viewers. His hand curved round to my inner thigh.

"Every TV presenter learns on Day One that you never throw to an ad break unless the floor manager cues you. That day, I had no choice. Just as Rolf’s hand touched my knicker elastic, I leaped a foot in the air and spluttered: 'Oh, my goodness. Let’s go to a break. Now! Now! Now'. I disentangled his fingers by jumping off the bed. Utterly unperturbed, Rolf chatted calmly to Alwen. The ad break finished."

In June 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecently assaulting four girls in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

He was released from jail in May 2017 after serving three years of his five years and nine-month sentence, with one of his counts of sexual assault later overturned.

He died in May 2023 at the age of 93 following a battle with neck cancer, whilst Alwen passed away at the age of 92 in September 2024.

Vanessa then claimed that the proceedings just carried on as normal and she "didn't make a complaint" because she had no idea of his other crimes until an investigation kicked off almost two decades later.

She wrote: " I disentangled his fingers by jumping off the bed. Utterly unperturbed, Rolf chatted calmly to Alwen. The ad break finished.

"Rolf and I climbed back on the bed and made polite televisual conversation until our interview wound up. I didn’t make a complaint. I didn’t want to ruin his marriage.

"I was fine, really, and this is crucial: I didn’t know Rolf was doing the same thing to other women, underage girls, children. I didn’t know his wife was often a hovering presence while he did it. I didn’t know he had ever behaved like that to any woman except me. I tried not to think about Rolf Harris after that and managed pretty well, until in 2013, when two police officers turned up at my front door as part of Operation Yewtree. They had the footage of my interview from 17 years earlier."