The BBC is under fresh pressure this weekend after a former colleague of Chris Evans alleged that he exposed himself to her at work almost every day for two years.
Speaking exclusively to Heat Street, the woman said she was “amazed” that the BBC had promoted Evans to become Top Gear’s executive producer and main host in view of his “shocking” past behaviour, which she claims is widely known about in the entertainment industry.
She said that in her experience Evans was “out of control” and BBC licence payers needed to know the truth about him.
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Speaking on condition of anonymity, the smartly-dressed professional described her time working with Evans in the 1990s, as “traumatic”.
She said: “When we worked together, he was OK to begin with. But he wanted to have an affair with me and I didn’t want to have an affair with him because he was with someone else at the time, so he sent me to Coventry – he told colleagues not to talk to me. It was bullying behaviour.”
Regrettably, she said, things then got worse.
She remembered: “He often said I was crap at my job and he would sometimes grab my breasts. I became totally desensitised to his behaviour.
“He would scream and shout and swear at me if I told him something simple such as reminding him he was due on air in 10 minutes’ time, say.
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“He would be abusive. Sometimes I was on my own with him, sometimes not. All I was thinking was that I had to do my job and make sure everything was going efficiently.”
According to the woman, who says she made a statement about these events to a lawyer about five years ago, he also exposed himself to her regularly.
She recalled: “He might have thought what he was doing was amusing, but like a lot of bullies he cloaked it in a joke. Bullies make out that you’re not being fun if you’re not being part of that joke.
“I have no idea if he was getting some gratification out of this, but he used to get his penis out every time I saw him. He’d either just get it out, or he’d walk in to a room naked. Sometimes it was erect, sometimes it wasn’t.
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“This was breaking the law. It was pretty much every single day. It was relentless. When I speak about this, it may not sound that bad, but actually it was.
“I know other people experience the same thing at work but this was quite extreme because of the relentlessness of it – almost every day for two years.”
The woman’s decision to discuss this experience echoes Heat Street’s discovery last week of a series of Facebook posts from a group who worked with Evans on Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast in the 1990s in which they discussed his penchant for showing his penis to them.
However, in those posts, none of the group of men and women mentioned being touched – or of Evans being aroused when he flashed at them.
The woman added: “I wasn’t surprised when I read about that. In my experience, sometimes he exposed himself in front of other people. With me, he would do it practically every single day.
“He would torture people who didn’t do what he wanted them to do. Everyone has to agree with him and be part of his gang. I know he was exposing himself to other people. I saw it. He never tried anything else with me.”
When asked what action she took, the woman said: “I made a complaint to the production team and they said they would deal with it and they didn’t.
“I ended up on anti-depressants. My doctor put me on them. Looking back on it, I realise I should have left sooner but I stayed because I had to pay the rent.”
She then quit the job, saying that she was “burnt out”.
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She said: “It took me a long time to recover. I got asked to do another job afterwards and I couldn’t bring myself to do it because I had had enough of the way I’d been treated. I couldn’t do it anymore.
“After that I didn’t work for quite a while. I was traumatised – not just by Chris, but by the entire job. But Chris’s behaviour was a catalyst to my trauma.”
Having gained some perspective and begun working again, she was able to confront the situation she was forced to endure by talking to friends.
She said: “I would get very upset seeing him doing something really successful because everyone knows what he’s like. He’s got away with it and we all know what he’s like.
“Everyone says he’s changed, but there’s no way he’s changed, in my opinion. Everyone I’ve spoken to is scathing about him – particularly intelligent people who’ve worked with him. They were just appalled by his behaviour, and it is appalling. I just resent having been treated like that and having to go through that.”
In light of claims of Evans’ bullying made to Heat Street on Thursday by his former business partner, John Revell, the woman also revealed that she has thought about taking this further.
Mr Revell alleged that the BBC has “a paper trail which details specific complaints about Chris’s inappropriate behaviour and yet it [the BBC] has done nothing about that.”
He was referring to complaints which were made within the last 12 months.
He also criticised BBC chief Tony Hall for failing to apply to Evans the BBC’s zero-tolerance bullying edict he announced in 2013.
To this, the woman said: “I often think about taking this further, because I think in a way you have to do something to protect other people. Also, there’s nothing worse than seeing someone who’s behaved that badly being so successful and everyone being hoodwinked by it.
“A lot of people who don’t know him and just watch him as an entertainer think he’s great, and I don’t think they realise what he’s like and how he’s got this weird side to him. I think it’s all part of him being a bully – the rich tapestry that is his bullying, and that’s how it manifests itself.”
She added: “He did nothing else, but it’s still breaking the law. He knew he could get away with it because he is the golden goose, and those below him don’t count, and he knows that. I wasn’t scared of Chris. I was just deeply traumatised by his behaviour, which is different.
“It does prey on my mind because it upsets me that he did that and got away with it. I’m upset that everyone thought it was ok – or they didn’t do anything to stop it. It was a different time, and things like that did happen, but the fact he reportedly is still treating people badly and still being paid a vast amount of money grates.”
Evans and co-host Matt LeBlanc have been working on a new series of Top Gear which is scheduled to air on BBC2 and BBC America on May 29.
Evans is reportedly being paid about £1 million for his role in the six-part show, which is broadcast around the world and generates an estimated £50 million per year in revenue for the BBC.
The woman said: “I’m amazed that he’s been promoted, particularly in the post-Savile climate. I’m absolutely gobsmacked that the BBC employed him in any capacity. Why would they take that risk? I don’t understand it. If you Google “Chris Evans and bullying”, stories come up about it going back many years.
“I’m amazed that he’s got this top job at Top Gear. My friends were upset for me. I don’t know what’s going on at the BBC. I love the BBC.
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“It would be a shame if Chris damaged it but I think Chris should now be investigated regarding the claims made against him recently at Radio 2 and whatever else happened before. I think you should be accountable for your behaviour going back as far as you can, even if it was 25 or 30 years ago.
“I think it would be nice if people knew what he was actually like. I can’t watch him on television or listen to him on the radio because I know the truth about him, so I can’t bear it. When he got the Top Gear job, I thought it was just appalling that he’d got away with it yet again. He steamrollers over everyone. I’ve met very few people like that in my life. I think he’s particularly bad. He trashes people. It does feel uncomfortable for me to talk about this but essentially he has broken the law and he needs to be accountable. It’s not normal behaviour.”
The BBC said it had no comment.
Chris Evans’ agent, Michael Foster, did not respond to four separate approaches by Heat Street for comment.
miles.goslett@dowjones.com