Angela Rippon has revealed she’s been victim to two terrifying muggings in London where thieves threatened to ‘break her fingers’ if she didn’t hand over her jewellery.
The broadcaster, 81, who was robbed twice between 2000 and 2001, said she feared being attacked if she failed to hand over her items, and admitted she’d lost ‘sentimental’ pieces of jewellery after succumbing to the thieves’ demands.
Speaking on Vanessa Feltz’s Channel 5 show, Angela shared she’d been ‘kicked in the head’ during one mugging after curling up into the foetal position on the ground in a bid to prevent her handbag from being stolen.
The presenter shared her experience while discussing whether it’s dangerous to confront a thief.
She said: ‘I’ve been mugged on two occasions in London and on both of them, it was me and there were two men.
‘Now, I mean I did fight back, I didn’t have an opportunity to the first time at all. I ended up on the ground, and sort of curled up in the foetal position, and I thought that I might be safe there, and that was because it was so public, on a public pavement, that people would stop and help me.’
Angela went on to add that rather than help, she’s seen others ‘get their phones out to film,’ but noted they’re likely ‘as afraid that they may get mugged themselves.’
The Strictly Come Dancing star added: ‘They wanted my handbag, and because I was curled, and at the point when one of them kicked my head and I suddenly thought ”actually, having concussion is not worth it,” and I just did that and let them take my handbag.
‘But I then got up and chased them in the hope that somebody might stick a foot out and stop them from running away.
‘But they were like a pair of young gazelles and I was in heels and you know there was no contest really.
‘But I think that, and then the second time that I was mugged again, there were two men and one of them had his hands around my throat and was threatening to break my fingers if I didn’t let them take my rings.
‘I mean there is a point where you have to say, they’re possessions, what is the point?
‘I mean, the one thing I lost was a sentimental ring that had been given to me by an aunt on my 21st birthday, it had very little value at all if any.
‘And I really, I angst more over that than I did over the loss of my watch or my diamond earrings which I had at the time, but there is a point I think, when you are on the receiving end of that kind of attack, that you have to say, actually, they are possessions, just take what you want.
‘Because you never know whether or not someone actually has a knife, and when they are bigger and when they’re bigger than you, I’m sorry, they are going to wallop you, and it’s not pleasant. It’s scary and it hurts, it’s very scary.’
Angela previously shared how she’d been left shaken by her second mugging, which took place near to her home in west London in 2001.
She said: ‘They were much bigger than me and you don’t fight back. I said, ”Let me help you, please take it”.
‘It was a terrifying experience. When I was mugged before, they pinched my handbag. This time it was much more violent and it was clearly planned. I got the impression they were waiting specifically for me.
‘It was physically painful this time, because they pulled my diamond stud earrings out with brute force and ripped my watch off.’
While Angela first rose to fame in the 1970s, and has fronted shows including Top Gear, Come Dancing and Antiques Roadshow, the star previously has hit out at TV bosses for ‘going woke’ in recent years.
Speaking on GB News, she said: ‘I think the difference was that today we have a plethora of television stations.
‘We have an incredible variety to an incredible access of different kinds of television programmes being proved by how many channels?
‘I don’t know, it runs into hundreds now, doesn’t it? And I think we probably all think back with nostalgia to the 70s, when there was only one channel, then two, then three, then four, maybe five.’
Angela continued: ‘It used to be a watercooler moment.
‘That’s how it used to be referred to when people would say, ‘Hey, did you see that on the telly last night?’ and I don’t think it’s that heyday was any different then.
‘It was just that everybody watched the same programmes.
‘I think the difference these days is, I hate the word, but we now all think there’s too much examples of wokeism on television.
‘And certainly, the things that if you go on to some of the nostalgic channels and you watch things all of those amazing programmes that there were in the 70s, Fawlty Towers, all of them.
‘We laugh. But there’s a lot of stuff that we were laughing at then that no television producer would put out now.’
