Richard Madeley opens up about his past friendship with convicted paedophile Stuart Hall
The presenter and author was wined and dined by Hall
RICHARD Madeley has opened up about his past friendship with convicted paedophile Stuart Hall – and how it could’ve ended in a nightmare for his family and daughter Chloe.
Former This Morning presenter Richard, 60, and his co-presenter and wife Judy Finnegan, 68, spent time with shamed It’s a Knockout presenter Stuart Hall in the early 90s, wining and dining at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.
He claims it was known around the BBC that Hall had slept with fans “of any age” in his dressing room - but adds that he seemed “perfectly pleasant”.
Richard told The Mirror: “He was ‘Uncle Stuart’ – likeable, funny, if of a type.
“When he denied it at the time, I believed him, and then of course it all fell apart.
“What struck me though was that luckily we were at his house.
The blood-curdling level of his crimes hit home when it was discovered Hall would read bedtime stories to a nine-year-old daughter of a family friend.
Dreading every parent’s worst nightmare, he said: “Had he been at ours, he could have done that to Chloe – they were about the same age.
“Jesus Christ, it could have been her.”
Hall, 86, was freed from prison last year after serving half of his five-year sentence for sexually abusing 13 girls aged nine to 17 between 1967 and 1985.
As well as Hall, Richard and Judy worked on This Morning with Fred Talbot, who was found guilty last year of abusing two boys during his work as a teacher.
Talbot eventually became a weatherman on the hit ITV daytime show in the 90s, when Richard and Judy became household names.
Richard said that no one on the show had any idea of Hall’s dark past – though did feel he was “an odd fish and socially awkward”.
Luckily, Chloe, now 28, was not affected by any interactions she had with the convicted paedophiles, and now lives life as a gym bunny with a strong sense of self.
Discussing her virtues on an episode of Loose Women, Richard said that he didn’t mind online trolls and neither did his daughter.
He said: “We both have the same attitude, we don't obviously like trolls, but we don't give a stuff.
“We don't take what they say seriously."
Richard later added: "If you think about the kind of person, whose day is made bright by writing this kind of stuff, what kind of background do they have?
“What do they actually do with the rest of their day?"
Richard and Judy, who have since moved away from the television limelight, have become authors, with Richard’s latest novel, The Night Book, hitting stores later this month.
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