In the wake of #MeToo movement, many women have come out to tell their stories of experiences of assault and harassment in the entertainment industry and beyond. Irish TV presenter Laura Whitmore has revealed that she too has been a victim of this conduct in a frank and very open-hearted piece in Hot Press.

Whitmore, who rose to fame as an MTV presenter in 2008, admitted that she was nervous about writing the piece saying:

"I've wanted to write this for a while but I’ve been scared. I feel ashamed to say I was scared but I was. I still am. Scared of what people might say, drawing attention to things that upset me, adding fuel to the fire. Still. I need to write this. What exactly ‘this is’, I don’t know precisely, but I’ll try to elaborate."

Laura went on to detail an experience she had in a nightclub last year when she was out with friends and suddenly felt a hand on the back of her leg: "Initially I thought it was my boyfriend messing or a mate about to pinch my bottom – but the hand went under my skirt, between my legs, and firmly touched me. As I turned, I saw it was a guy who I did not know. He was laughing.

"I pushed him away and told him to get his ‘fucking hands off me’. It was dark and I was shocked by what had just happened. I couldn’t recognise his face under the strobing lights and, then, he was gone. I was a bit tipsy and I was wearing a short skirt. Did I deserve that to happen? I told the manager but what could I do? What was the point?"

Throughout the course of the piece, Laura describes multiple incidents of harassment she has experienced from ass slaps to a photographer who wouldn't stop until he got the 'money shot'.

She also discusses an incident where a friend of hers admitted she was once raped by "someone of importance" that they both knew but the friend never reported it for fear of what he could do to her career.

Laura mentions the hard time she had from the press during her time on Strictly Come Dancing as well as the media storm when she was seen having a chat with Leonardo DiCaprio at the BAFTAs a couple of years ago (although she refers to him as "a very well known actor").

"I've spent most of my career, in the little limelight I’ve experienced, reading about my so-called dalliances with men. Pretty much every man I’ve ever crossed paths with, I may as well have been photographed straddling – from friends, to work colleagues, to actual boyfriends. This is supposed to be a measure of my worth?

"Not the fact that I have a first class honours degree in journalism; that I was selected as an MTV host ahead of thousands of applicants; that I have worked bloody hard in this industry and made a successful career, bought a house, supported my family, been a faithful girlfriend and lived a life as best I could, trying to be a kind person and standing up for others when I could?"

You can read the piece in full here.