Podcast host, TV star, and presenter Olivia Attwood has opened up for the first time about what she describes as a "15-minute psychological assault" during an interview last year.
Speaking on her Olivia's House podcast, the former Love Islander was asked who the "top three wankers" she's met in the industry are. To that, she explained she's usually pretty "thick-skinned" so doesn't let much get to her, but revealed that something she saw on Instagram recently gave her "PTSD" and reminded her of an incident last year.
"I had an experience with a female host, and it was really one of the worst experiences I’ve probably had in an interview, because I felt like she didn’t want me there," Olivia said, which appears to link to her previous appearance on BBC's Woman's Hour, hosted by Emma Barnett, which was to promote her then-upcoming series of The Price of Perfection.
Although Olivia didn't directly name the interviewer or the BBC show she was on, it's pretty easy to piece together who and what she's referring to, based on the details she did reveal, plus the social media backlash to the interview after it aired at the time.
During the Woman's Hour interview, Emma pressed Olivia on whether she was "feeding" the pressure many people feel to get cosmetic surgery. "I think you look a bit older than 31," she said elsewhere during the interview, while later telling Olivia she is an "incredibly beautiful woman".
"I don't mind being put on the spot. I was meant to be promoting my documentary and everything I'd learnt about the [cosmetics] industry," Oliva said on her podcast while looking back on the interview. "[But the presenter] very much wanted to make it about me and what I looked like."
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She continued: "She said, 'So you, what have you had done?' I was a bit like, 'Wow'. I am open to it, but I'm talking about the cosmetic industry as a whole."
Olivia then went on to say that, while live on air, the host told her, "'I don't know what you were trying to achieve because you look a lot older with what you've done to yourself."
Reflecting on the interaction, Olivia said it felt "wrong" for a show that's supposed to be a "safe" and "uplifting" space for women. "It was just a really horrible experience," she added. "It stayed with me for a little while. When I left that studio, I sat in silence for 20 minutes. I was like, 'What just actually happened?'"
Cosmopolitan UK has reached out to representatives for Emma Barnett, the BBC, and Woman's Hour for comment.
