Columnist Terry Prone says she was warned ‘never to get in a lift alone with a certain man’ while working in RTÉ as a teenage girl.

Ms Prone told The Pat Kenny Show she warned about the man as a teenager.

“[I was told] that you could never afford to get into the lift with him because his hands would be up your skirt immediately. 

“I was quite taken aback, the only time I had to get in the lift on my own [with him], that he never went near me. 

“And classically, people had that fear [and] I began to think maybe I'm not attractive enough to be assaulted. It was a different time and different worries.” 

Ms Prone began working in RTÉ in the early 1960s at age 13.

Phillip Schofield

Ms Prone said Phillip Schofield’s recent interview addressing his affair with a young This Morning runner did more harm than good.  

“He has given more legs to a story that was beginning to move to page six or seven of the tabloids and put it right back on page one,” she said.

She disagreed with Schofield’s claim that his affair with a man 30 years younger than him has received more criticism than if an older man had an affair with a younger female colleague.  

“[He said] if it had been a young woman, there would have been no rumors and there wouldn't have been a scandal,” she said. “That's not actually true.” 

She said today, any workplace relationships with a large age gap would be criticised.  

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