Rachel Riley claims she was ‘upskirted by male celebrity’ who filmed her under table tennis table

Rachel Riley claims she was ‘upskirted by male celebrity’ who filmed her under table tennis table
Live stream 1069
Tom Evans

By Tom Evans


Published: 05/05/2022

- 13:55

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:34

Countdown star Rachel Riley says a celebrity put his phone under her to upskirt her while she was playing table tennis with her husband Pasha Kovalev

Riley, 36, refused to name the man but says he had recently purchased an Apple Watch.

She says he filmed under her skirt before going to sit “back a couple of metres away while him and all his mates looked at his watch”.


The TV star said she “wouldn’t call him a friend” but noted that “you would know" him while saying she was “too polite” after the incident.

She said: “One who shall remain nameless, who people would know, he just got an Apple Watch, and at a party at a friend's house, I was playing table tennis with Pash, and this guy, in full view of everyone, came, put his phone on the floor under my skirt where I was playing table tennis, and went and sat back down a couple of metres away while him and all his mates looked at his watch.

Picture of Rachel Riley. See PA Feature BOOK Riley. Picture credit should read: Verri Media/PA. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature BOOK Riley.
Rachel Riley
PA Features Archive/Press Association Images

Picture of Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev rehearsing for Strictly in 2013. See PA Feature BOOK Riley. Picture credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature BOOK Riley.
Rachel Riley and husband Pasha Kovalev
PA Features Archive/Press Association Images

“It was like a video basically.

"So he went and put his phone down so he could look up and went two metres away to go and look at his phone, look up my skirt.”

In conversation with the Dirty Mother Pukka podcast, Riley added: “I wouldn't call him a friend, but you would know him. I was too polite.

“Now, being able to digest it and think about it, if someone tried to do that to me again I would break their phone.

“If they've got a problem with that, they can go to the police and we can deal with it in the public.

“That a man obviously thought he could get away with blatantly, brazenly putting his phone, upskirting me on a video for his friends on his phone, and it would be fine!

“Now I would just break his phone and deal with it afterwards.”

Riley then noted that it was her husband who rectified the situation.

She continued: “But at that time Pasha went up, picked his phone up, and politely went and took it to him, and just gave him a really awful look like: ‘What the hell are you doing?’

“I think the days of being polite, meek and mild, to someone who wants to grab you, nah, done with that.”

Riley also revealed that when a charity checked her Instagram direct messages, they found hate and vile sexual content – including 30 videos from one man masturbating.

She slammed social media companies for not stopping it and called on them to face the same controls as the traditional media.

Riley hailed the arrival of the forthcoming Online Harms Bill.

You may like