Helen Skelton doesn’t regret her brutal charity boxing match with Camilla Thurlow.
The BBC presenter with head-to-head with the former Love Island contestant for a controversial Sport Relief charity bout, in which she was accused of brutality as she came out on top, but Helen feels proud of her performance.
She told the Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine: "Everyone said it was uncomfortable viewing but I absolutely loved the training and fell so completely in love with the sport that I wanted to go out there and make my trainer proud. My worst nightmare was being told afterwards that I ‘punched like a girl’. I wanted people to say, ‘That was a good fight’."
And Helen, 34, was full of praise for her opponent Camilla.
She said: "Fair play to Camilla, she retaliated with gutsiness and spirit and gave me a black eye. Yes, the ref did tell me to go easy, but when I do anything, I want to do it properly. I don’t do defence, I just go for it and she took everything I gave her and still she kept coming back. Arguably she had more balls than me."
Helen also insisted she was fully supported by her BBC bosses during ‘Shortsgate’, when she was accused of wearing skimpy outfits on TV while presenting the 2016 Olympics from Rio.
She said: "As far as my Rio outfits went, I thought I looked nice and I felt great. I’d just had my first child and I wanted to make an effort and to feel good about myself, so I got a personal stylist in the way everybody else does. What was I supposed to do, not make an effort?
"My bosses at the BBC supported me – in fact, they were coming up to me and checking I was all right. I said that it wasn’t even on my radar. I’m a massive sports fan and I love live TV. So I had the brass neck to wear summer clothes in a hot country? Big deal. I wasn’t wearing any shoes either, but nobody spotted that."
Helen Skelton: No regrets over brutal charity boxing bout
