Richard Madeley opens up about being beaten by father who he suspects was sexually abused

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Good Morning Britain presenter, 65, said his father – who died aged 49 in 1977 – hit him until his mother “had a word”. “And he’d fetch a bamboo stick that he used to put runner beans on, and – not in a formal ‘bend over’ way – he would lay about me, four or five strokes, not at full strength but they hurt, from when I was quite small.” Madeley told The Sunday Times Magazine: “That went on until I was about nine or 10 and he went a bit too far, hit me too many times, and my mother had a word and that was that.” He said he “didn’t feel it was out of the ordinary” because other children were also hit by their parents, but added: “But I didn’t like it. He was a very happy farmer’s boy, but when he was 15 my grandparents discovered he had the beginnings of a girlfriend, which they thought the road to perdition, so they packed him off to this ghastly place.” Richard Madeley is a presenter on ‘Good Morning Britain’ He said: “I have a strong suspicion he was sexually abused in some way. He never said that, but there were some pointers along the way.” Madeley recently said he felt “ashamed” for hitting his children when they were young.