The truth about all those men in my life and those lesbian rumours by Valerie Singleton

For decades the much loved presenter has endured rumours about her private life. Now, with extraordinary candour, she has chosen to set the record straight – about her many men (including Peter Purves and Albert Finney), about Joan Armatrading...and about the lifelong secret which could have destroyed her Blue Peter career.

I have spent a lifetime in broadcasting, so you might think that by now I would have come to terms with my public reputation.

 

To most people I am the wholesome face of wholesome programming: Radio 4’s PM, Nationwide, The Money Programme and, I scarcely need to say it, the irreproachable Blue Peter.

 

Even today, I am stopped in the street by people who treat me with an exaggerated deference better suited to a living saint.

 

For decades the much loved presenter has endured rumours about her private life. Now, with extraordinary candour, she has chosen to set the record straight – about her many men (including Peter Purves and Albert Finney), about Joan Armatrading...and about the lifelong secret which could have destroyed her Blue Peter career.

 

Many cannot remember a time when I was not on television and perhaps, for them, I will for ever be the voice of benign authority, the queen of famine appeals and sticky-back plastic.

But this view of me, however deep-rooted, is completely false. I am no goody-two-shoes – far from it.

Despite my rather conformist reputation, I was often naughty in my youth – a bit wild, even. So it’s a wonder that I ever appeared on children’s television.

Read the entire interview from June 2008 with Peter Robertson from Mail Online at this link