Entertainment
Billie Piper recalls ‘tone deaf’ and ‘unforgivable’ interviews with Jonathan Ross and Michael Parkinson about eating disorder and divorce
Billie Piper has recalled her ‘tone deaf’ and ‘unforgivable’ past interviews with Jonathan Ross and Michael Parkinson.
In an interview on the Changes With Annie MacManus podcast, the 38-year-old admitted that she feels uncomfortable re-watching her 2006 interview on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross after he joked about her eating disorder.
The former child star said: ‘I don’t know that you could ask those questions any more. It would feel so tone-deaf now. The questions women had to answer – some of it is unforgivable.’
During the offending interview, Ross quizzed Billie about her eating habits during a discussion about her autobiography Growing Pains.
He said: ‘You speak about your eating problems and trying to stay thin and eating tissue paper and stuff like that. Is it as deeply unpleasant as you say? How many sheets of paper could you get down?’
When she replied: ‘six sheets’, Ross continued: ‘Did you put any condiments on it? Drink water to get it down?’
Billie responded: ‘Yeah. It’s so awful. I did it for two years, I didn’t solidly eat tissue for two years’.
In return, Jonathan said: ‘But you’d have a banana or something? We shouldn’t talk about it because even if we’re sitting here thinking it’s awful, there are young girls sitting at home thinking I’ll remember to do that’.
Meanwhile, during her podcast interview, Billie also reflected on her problematic 2005 interview with broadcaster Michael Parkinson, who at the time probed her about her divorce from Chris Evans.
‘I can’t watch that Parkinson interview. I just look at that and think, I found my diary and I found it so hard to read. I don’t know which version of me is more true.
‘I don’t recognise that person, it feels so far away from what has happened since.’
Speaking about both male broadcasters’ line of questioning, Billie said that the issue stemmed from ‘being nice’.
‘It is that giving and the niceness. That has made me really angry. That un-boundary line of questioning. That is just not in an interview that is an expectation of women. Certainly of famous women.’
Billie rose to fame aged just 15 when she released her debut single Because We Want To that shot straight to the top of the UK single charts.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : Billie Piper believes Johnny Lloyd romance defies logic due to her ‘abandonment issues’
