Carol Vorderman: BBC bosses snubbed me
TV presenter Carol Vorderman has revealed that she was turned down by a BBC boss early on in her career - after he claimed her breasts were too small.
Speaking to the Mail On Sunday the former Countdown host recalled how she approached executives at the corporation during her time on the Channel 4 show, in a bid to further her career.
However one of the interviews turned out to be one she would rather forget.
"It wasn't an interview for a particular job," she said. "It was just meeting with one of the very big bosses on the sixth floor at Television Centre.
"He sat in his chair and he put his feet on the desk. He looked at me and said, “Hmmm. So what do you want to do?”
I replied, “Well, you know if there are any jobs... I’d be very interested to hear about anything and I’m just really coming to meet you so that you could consider me for things in the future.
"And he said, “Nah, love, your t*** aren’t big enough.” I mean, can you imagine?"
Get the What to Watch Newsletter
The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more!
Carol - who has been fronting Food Glorious Food on ITV - added that she did not complain about the executive, saying: "That's just how it was then" - but said she had moved on from the whole embarrassing incident.
"I don't hold resentments," she said. "Now a lot of the bosses are women so you wouldn't get that. But that was the time we lived in."
Carol also revealed that she was devastated to have been left out of celebrations for Countdown - the first show ever to be screened on Channel 4 - which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2012.
Despite having quit the series acrimoniously in 2008 after being asked to take a 90 per cent pay cut - she said she would have happily let bygones be bygones on that occasion.
"You can’t just wipe someone out of its history when you’ve been on it for nearly 5,000 shows. It doesn’t work like that,’ she said. "Of course I would have gone back if I’d been asked."