"It was just an instant thing."
Ranvir Singh opened up about the reason why she decided to speak out about being sexually assaulted aged 12 in ITV documentary Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile.
On Good Morning Britain, Ranvir said she felt compelled to talk about her own ordeal when trying to comfort Lisa Phillips, now aged 45, who is one of the many underage girls targeted by the late Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Speaking to Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, Ranvir said the revelation “came as a complete surprise to me actually, which I suppose speaks to some of the issues around the Ghislaine trial, about memory around incidents that happen in your life of that nature”.
Ranvir went on to describe how she saw a distressed Lisa “retreat into that moment as she was recounting it”.
She said: “I think a lot of people who have crimes of that nature committed to them do feel a sense of guilt, of could I have done more?
“Should I have shouted, should I have screamed? A sort of survivor guilt I think.
“Often when we do this job people think we are just out to make people cry on telly, do you know what I mean, I’m being blunt about how people view journalists.”
Ranvir explained that because the interview was done over Zoom she could not physically comfort Lisa.
Therefore, she decided to tell Lisa about her own ordeal.
The presenter said: “It was just an instant thing. I felt a really shocking kind of empathy with what she was describing.
“I was acutely aware we were on camera but it’s a human to human experience when someone is telling you something so painful.
“So I did say to her something happened to me when I was 12, and I understand you shouldn’t feel guilty about not.”
Tearing up, Ranvir continued: “Sorry, do you know what?
“I’ve only ever told two people in my whole life, and in the last two weeks I’ve had to tell family members and so on.”
While Susanna told her she did not need to tell anyone anything, an emotional Ranvir spoke about the turmoil she felt as to whether to include her experience in the documentary.
She said: “It’s odd because it’s not something you generally talk about, but the point being even on the Friday it was very touch and go about whether I should leave it in the documentary because it’s a big thing to say.”
Ranvir Singh added: “Speaking to Lisa brought up something that happened to me when I was 12.
“It happened once – and that person is dead – and so I have an understanding of what it’s like and why you would never want to speak of it again.”
Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile airs on January 18, 2022.
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