EXCLUSIVE: GMTV and Blue Peter legend Anthea Turner has opened up about her feud with Eamonn Holmes.
Anthea Turner has addressed her feud with Eamonn Holmes (Image: Getty)
BBC Blue Peter legend Anthea Turner has spoken out about her famous feud with co-star Eamonn Holmes while they worked together on GMTV in the 1990s. Their backstage row turned so nasty that in 1996, Eamonn even gave producers an ultimatum as he told them he would leave if she wasn’t axed from the show.
Things turned extremely frosty as he called her ‘Princess Tippy Toes’ in an interview, something which she admits leaves her hurt even now. But the pair have seemed to have patched things up, as they were seen together in a photo back in March, with Eamonn calling her a “top girl”.
But things don’t appear to have been completely smoothed over. Talking to Express.co.uk about their feud, Anthea pointedly said: “I don’t think Eamonn and I speak lots…” as she added: “Those are just headlines saying that we reunited.”
Eamonn and Anthea eventually ended their feud years later (Image: Getty)
She added: “Obviously, there was the hullabaloo. In fact, I went to Belfast where he was doing a show, and I remember going up there, it must have been about 15 years ago, and we signed a Good Friday Agreement.”
Meanwhile, Anthea also recalled the time she was nearly killed while filming Blue Peter when a pyrotechnic display accidentally exploded in her face during a motorbike stunt gone wrong.
She said: “I have to say, my goodness me, had I sat literally a few more inches nearer to the pyrotechnic, it would have done some proper damage to me,” she says today. “Had I sat slightly toward the centre of the tailgate, and I’m talking inches here, centimetres, the motorbike would have just gone into the back of my head. So I was so lucky.”
She was scarred for life after the incident, as she revealed one of her hands is whiter than the other after several layers of skin were burnt off.
Anthea said: “My hair disappeared, my fringe, lashes and eyebrows were gone,” she remembers of the horrific moment. “But I just rolled on the floor and it all just happened so quickly.
“I remember getting taken away to a tent and looking in the mirror and thinking ‘Oh my God’, so it was quite frightening. But obviously, I’m thankfully here to tell the tale. But only just.”
If there was one thing to come out of it it’s that she has become the public face of health and safety at the BBC. Anthea joked: “I’m on the BBC safety video!”
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