BBC Breakfast star Selina Scott says she refused to celebrate show's 40th anniversary celebrations after living through the channel's "snake-pit atmosphere" that was "full of back-stabbing and manipulation".
Selina, then 31, was the face of BBC Breakfast Time when it launched in 1983 and was the lead female anchor after joining from ITN's News At Ten.
But despite being an integral part of the show's launch, she says it would have been "dishonest" to join her old colleagues as they appeared on the show this week.
"I said no because I prefer to look forward rather than back, but also because so much of my time on the hideous red leather sofa made me feel I was a combatant in a war zone," she said.
In a new column for the Daily Mail, Selina claims the "back-stabbing" started with her co-host Frank Bough who would "butt into my interviews" to "undermine me on air".
She claims the men that ran the channel were "misogynists" who were so "suspicious" of women that they used them for "decoration" and didn't trust them to deliver.
What's more she claims Frank tried to bed rookie broadcasters and demanded flirtations with many of the women he worked with.
"The quid pro quo for young women in my position, who were just starting out in TV, was that if you went to bed with ‘Uncle Frank’ you would be fast-tracked to success. If you didn’t, you’d suffer the consequences," she said.
But Selina persevered despite Frank trying to kiss her whenever photographers appeared.
"It is still a source of irritation that so many photos exist of Frank trying to kiss me," she said.
Selina claims she had it written into her contract when she later hosted the Wogan show that no guests were allowed to kiss her.
But she says it wasn't just Frank who "took liberties" with her and she also had a brush with Jimmy Savile.
During a two-hour show Savile "acted like a lovesick teengager" as Selina tried to interview him and he gave nothing but "smutty innuendos".
Selina says he even climbed into a sleeping bag he'd brought with him to give more "wink wink, nudge nudge suggestions".
Savile then refused to go any further with the interview until Selina gave him a kiss.
Despite finding him "repulsive" Selina felt she "had no choice".
After three years of hosting Breakfast Time, Selina quit and moved to America to work for CBS.
Mirror Online has contacted the BBC for comment.
