Melanie Sykes claims hours of offensive remarks from Leigh Francis left her ‘crying all night’

Model and presenter alleged that Francis, in character as Keith Lemon, made comments about her private parts

TV presenter Melanie Sykes has claimed she was in tears after Celebrity Juicestar Leigh Francis made offensive remarks at her for three hours while playing his Keith Lemon character.

Sykes said the alleged abuse happened during filming on ITV’s Through the Keyhole in 2018, adding that she complained to producers.

Francis, playing his fake-tanned comedy character Lemon, hosted the show for six series, until it was cancelled last year.

“I went into the studio and I didn’t think Keith was going to be like he was on the other show that he does [Celebrity Juice] where it’s all sex and blow jobs and talking about people’s a***holes and all that,” Sykessaid on the podcast Frankly Speaking with Lynne Franks & Friends.

>> Sign up to our newly relaunched IndyArts newsletter for free and get all the latest entertainment news and reviews straight to your inbox

“I sat there for a three-hour record and he did all of that stuff to me verbally to entertain the live audience – because it was never going to make the edit of the show, because it was a family, Saturday night show, so he used me to entertain the audience.

“I had Jonathan Ross to my right and Jordan Banjo to my left and the first thing that Keith said to me, in character, was: ‘I bet your a***hole smells of flowers.’ It makes me want to cry right now because I was so caught in the headlights and wasn’t expecting it.”

She added: “It went from bad to worse, I kept thinking, what am I going to do? I can’t get up and storm out because it will be all over the newspapers that I’ve walked out and it will, of course, be my fault, everybody in the audience has a mobile phone so they could see.”

Sykes said she “cried all night” before ringing her agent in the morning, and then calling the head of the show’s production company Talkback.

The presenter said the producers allowed her to approve the edit of the show that went out.

The Independent has contacted Francis’s representatives and Talkback for comment.

Last year, Francis apologised for his “offensive” portrayals of black people on Bo’ Selecta.

From 2002 to 2009, Francis starred in the surreal Channel 4 sketch show, during which he impersonated famous people, including black celebrities Craig David and Trisha Goddard, while wearing large latex masks.

With protests taking place across the world for the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, Francis shared an emotional video on Instagram explaining that he’d been on a “learning journey”.