BBC star breaks down as she apologises to Fearne Cotton over remark that got her sacked: ‘Really awful!’
The presenter revealed years of media scrutiny fuelled her resentment
Miquita Oliver has delivered a tearful public apology to Fearne Cotton revealing that a derogatory remark she made two decades ago cost her a job at BBC Radio 1.
Speaking to co-host Jordan Stephens on her podcast Miss Me?, the 42-year-old presenter described the incident as something she had carried deep shame about for years.
“Basically when I was 20 I did something really awful that I was really ashamed of for a long time,” she said.
Ms Oliver was sacked from Radio 1 in 2005 after branding Ms Cotton a “she-devil” during an interview with NME.
Miquita Oliver issued a tearful public apology to Fearne Cotton
Asked how she would improve Top of the Pops, she had replied: “Get rid of the she-devil Fearne Cotton.”
“I was fired from Radio 1 because of it, so I lived with a lot of consequences,” she told Mr Stephens.
Ms Oliver first broke into television at just 16 as a host on Channel 4’s Popworld, going on to present T4 for the same broadcaster.
She joined Radio 1 at 19 and remained there until she was 21.
Fearne Cotton reached out to Ms Oliver with a supportive message years after their public fallout
During that period, Ms Cotton was already an established face on the BBC, fronting Top of the Pops and broadcasting on Radio 1 after beginning her career in children’s television.
Ms Oliver later disclosed in a separate interview four years afterwards that she had been “let go” from the station as a direct result.
“I wasn’t very nice about her at all, I was awful about her,” the podcast host recalled, describing her relationship with Ms Cotton at the time as “tumultuous”.
Ms Oliver grew emotional as she explained how the media’s relentless cruelty towards her during those early years had poisoned her attitude towards fellow women in the industry.
Ms Oliver said a derogatory remark about Fearne Cotton led to her dismissal from BBC Radio 1
Newspapers and magazines routinely labelled her “ugly,” “dirty” and “fat,” she told Mr Stephens, while constantly measuring her against other female presenters.
Ms Cotton, in Ms Oliver’s eyes, embodied everything a television host was supposed to be.
“I saw her as what a TV presenter should look like: clean, thin, groomed, and she scared me,” she said.
“She made me feel like I wasn’t in the right job and I shouldn’t be there.”
That insecurity, Ms Oliver acknowledged, was never Ms Cotton’s doing.
“That s**t makes you turn on each other, so it was really good for me to realise why I did that, why I felt that way about her,” she said.
The rift between the two women began to heal last year when Ms Cotton sent Ms Oliver an Instagram message after watching a clip of her discussing press treatment.
“She sent me a message on Instagram when I was having a f***ing awful time,” Ms Oliver recalled.
Fearne Cotton became one of the BBC’s best-known presenters after fronting Top of the Pops during the 2000s
Ms Cotton wrote that the clip had “resonated deeply” and revealed her own struggles with media scrutiny.
“Having awful things written nearly took me down completely and I’m still trying to overcome the aftermath today,” she said.
Ms Cotton added: “I guess you always assume it’s only you who they picked on, but there are so many of us. Powerful clip all round for me to see. Sending love, Fearne.”
Ms Oliver described receiving the message as “really healing,” adding: “I didn’t mean to be awful to her. I was unkind, and it wasn’t me.”
Miquita Oliver admitted she was “awful” to Fearne Cotton and said she had carried shame over the incident for years
Ms Oliver replied to Ms Cotton’s message and wished her well following her split from husband Jesse Wood.
“It was all love,” she said.
The pair had been forced into occasional contact years earlier when Welsh presenter Steve Jones, Ms Oliver’s colleague on T4, started dating Ms Cotton.
“We were civil, but it was a little bit uncomfortable,” Ms Oliver recalled.
Ms Cotton herself spoke candidly in 2024 about the lasting toll of her broadcasting career, telling The Times she would not go back to live television or radio “for any money in the world.”
She likened the industry to “a pit of lions” and said her nervous system was “absolutely shot.”
Ms Oliver, meanwhile, joked that listeners could expect to see her on Ms Cotton’s Happy Place podcast before long: “Me and Fearne Cotton are fine.”
