MELINDA Messenger claims a masseur sexually assaulted her when she worked as a Formula One grid girl.

The former model said she felt unable to stand up to the alleged attacker and said it was one of hundreds of similar experiences she had at the height of her fame.

The Swindon-born 51-year-old worked as a grid girl in the late '90s alongside Katie Price and Emma Noble. She admitted she still feels "haunted" because she never reported these traumatic encounters.

Detailing one alleged incident, she told The Sun a masseur for the Formula One drivers would offer massages to the grid girls.

She told the publication: "In my foolish naivety, I was like, 'Oooh, a massage, that would be really nice', but then, while having it, I suddenly thought, 'No, this is all wrong'."

Melinda said she was luckily able to escape the situation and said she never reported the man in question.

The TV presenter said she didn't know how to protect herself at the time, adding that she had "non-existent boundaries" and didn't know how to say 'no' to people. 

She said: "I didn't know how to keep myself out of situations that could be potentially, you know, not great."

Another incident from when she was modelling in her twenties allegedly involved a photographer making inappropriate and sexual remarks to her during a photoshoot.

She said she walked out of the shoot because she felt his behaviour was aggressive, but there were many other occasions where she didn't and just "let it slide".

The former Page Three girl admitted she now worries about young women who are modelling and urges them to not accept any inappropriate behaviour.

Melinda said she unintentionally exploited herself during her career as a glamour model and doesn't want her 18-year-old daughter Evie to follow in her modelling footsteps. 

Melinda shot to fame after being spotted on a billboard for a windows firm in Swindon in 1997 and said she would wear heavy make-up to cover up feeling like she wasn't good enough.

She presented the magazine programme Live from Studio Five and was formerly the co-presenter of the reality show Cowboy Builders as well as contestant show Fort Boyard.

She is a mother to Morgan, 22, Flynn, 20, and Evie, 18, and parted ways with her ex-husband Wayne Roberts in 2012, and she admitted last year that she wanted to start dating again.