Naga Munchetty groped on train – and punched teenage boy in face to stop ordeal

The BBC Breakfast presenter said her “instant reaction” may not have been “right” but she feared what would have happened next

Naga Munchetty has relived a moment when she was sexually harassed on a train and had to punch a teenage boy who groped her.

The presenter-and-journalist was bothered by the “15- or 16”-year-old boys as she travelled on the train who stood “near” to the door as she went to step off the carriage.

Naga – who was a “few years older” than the youngsters – felt her bottom being pinched as she went to get off so she turned and in a moment of shock she punched one of the teenagers.

Speaking to the Daily Mail newspaper’s Eden Confidential column, Naga, 50, said: “Two young boys were there. They were probably about 15 or 16, and they were near the door as I went to get off.

“And they grabbed my bottom, pinched it, and I turned around and punched one of those boys and swore at them.”

BBC star Naga Munchetty has opened up about her ordeal ( 
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undefined via Getty Images)

Naga Munchetty and her husband James Haggar ( 
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Getty)
The BBC Breakfast presenter said her “instant reaction” may not have been “right”, and that she feared what would have happened if she stayed on the train.

Naga said: “I’m not saying that was right, but it was an instant reaction. And then, straightaway after, was the fear that I was a woman on my own, only a few years older than them and what would happen next.

“I was fortunate enough that it shocked them, and I was getting off the train, and I was comforted by that.

“If I had been staying on the train, I don’t know – I don’t think I would have wanted to be confronted by them.”

Naga has been a regular on BBC Breakfast since 2014 ( 
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Naga previously said she gets hacked off when keyboard warriors constantly criticise a celebrity’s weight and looks.

Chatting on a June episode of the Walking the Dog with Emily Dean podcast, the star said: “All these film stars who are constantly criticised for their weight and their appearance. And, now what work have they had done? Should they have had the work done?

“Should they go and get the work done? And it’s just, leave them alone! Who wants that?”

And Naga – who first started joining her 62-year-old co-presenter Charlie Stayt on the BBC Breakfast red sofa every Thursday to Saturday in 2014 – hates being famous because of the amount of criticism it brings her.

She said: “It’s horrible being famous.

“I’ve got a high profile. But the scrutiny I get anyway; my voice or what I’m wearing, what my hair looks like, my makeup, and if I phrased something a certain way. And that’s a journalist doing their job.”

Naga added: “There are so many people who are ready to bash me every day, every hour when I do my job. Why on Earth would I bash myself?

“I’m done with being hypercritical.”