Late British broadcaster Clement Freud accused of paedophilia, prompting apology from his widow

Two women have accused the late British broadcaster Clement Freud of abusing them as children in a television documentary due to be broadcast Wednesday.

His widow released a statement apologising to the women.

Freud, who was a writer, broadcaster, celebrity chef and member of parliament before he died in 2009, was accused of abuse that took place in the 1940s to 1970s.

One woman Sylvia Woosley told the ITV documentary Exposure: Abused & Betrayed that Freud had molested her from the age of 10 to 19.

“He had a certain power over me which I didn’t understand and because it was something new, and it was a man, and I was desperate for a father’s love,” she told the documentary, according to ITV.

“It destroyed something in me that broke, and I suppose it’s affected my behaviour all my life.”

A second anonymous woman told ITV that Freud had molested her from age 11 when he was a member of parliament, and raped her in her parents’ home at the age of 18.