Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding claims her first year on the kids' TV classic Blue Peter was so "horrific" due to the "relentless bullying she suffered, that she actually resigned from the show.
The Most Haunted star joined the programme in 1987 as the youngest ever presenter when she was just 18 and eventually fronted the show for five years.
But she claims that by the end of her first year she was left "a shaking, gibbering wreck," due to being "berated" by her boss Biddy Baxter.
Famed BBC producer Biddy Baxter MBE is a British television producer, who edited the long-running BBC TV children's magazine show for 26 years.
But Yvette alleges that the now-90-year-old was "cruel" and would "berate" her.
Opening up about her experience on the Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did podcast, she said: "To me, the most important thing in a job was to please your boss and do the best that you can do.
"The problem was that I was trying to please my boss so much, but my boss seemed to be – I don't know why – just incredibly cruel.
"I thought that I'd be doing okay, and then I was told that I was useless. Absolutely useless, again and again and again and again."
In the end, Yvette decided it was too much for her, adding: "It was a very, very hard time, and I did resign."
The TV star, now 55, claimed that when she first joined, she was put up in a hotel by the BBC where producers would call every night to check she was in bed by 9pm.
She was also allegedly given the then-Blue Peter dog, Bonnie, to look after, despite it already having an owner, and was later forced to move out of her flat and into a house with a complete stranger.
Yvette said that although she had been pushed "to the absolute limit," she decided to withdraw her resignation after finding out that Biddy was planning to retire.
"When she was leaving, I actually got a bit emotional," she said.
"I wanted to please her so much, I wanted her to be so proud of me. And yet it was like being beaten by a parent.
"It was like every time I did what I thought was right, she'd come back and say something awful or she'd just berate me in front of other people. And it was just absolutely soul-destroying.
"You've got to be confident in front of 8 million people twice a week, and my confidence was just at an all-time low. I was a shaking, gibbering wreck."
Yvette is now also now a successful author, penning the popular supernatural series the Ghost Hunter chronicles and has just released her latest Young Adult novel, The Witches of Pendle.
Reflecting on the alleged experience, she said it's "made her a stronger person in the long run," and thanked Biddy for giving her "the balls" to stand up to people in her later career as a result.
"There's no bitterness there whatsoever – in fact, it's the other way," she said.
"People say to me, 'Oh, wasn't it wonderful, didn't you have a fabulous time?' I think, no, not the first year. It was horrific. It was like a nightmare.
"A nightmare I used to wake up from and think, 'Oh God, please make me be dreaming. Make me be back at home.'"
OK! has contacted the BBC for comment.
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