Former CBeebies star Sarah-Jane Honeywell says she felt ‘lost’ after being sacked for topless photo scandal
EX CBEEBIES host Sarah-Jane Honeywell has blasted the overwhelming expectations of her to behave "like a saint" during her prime time telly career.
The presenter, 47, who was sacked from children's TV after posing topless in a PETA campaign, has now told how the aftermath left her feeling like she'd "lost" her identity and "sense of purpose."
Back in November 2011, she took part in a promo campaign for PETA, which saw her posing bra-free on a huge plate of food in London’s Trafalgar Square.
The resulting images caused a stir, and when further shots of her wearing a skimpy vest and pouring Diet Coke over her boobs appeared in the press, she discovered she’d been sacked.
Sarah-Jane, who appeared on Tikkabilla, ZingZillas and Mighty Mites, has openly spoken out about her suicidal feelings and spiralling £100K debt after being booted off-screen 10 years ago.
Now, in her role as BBC Radio Lincolnshire show host, Sarah-Jane has opened up on her feelings.
She said: "PETA had asked me if I would do a picture for them because I'm a vegan.
“I'm not really that political. I was just like I'll do it to help.”
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Yet after the reaction to the saucy snaps proved the campaign really "was not OK" she added "nobody phoned."
She said: "I felt really lost, I felt like I'd lost my identity.
"My whole kind of sense of purpose, identity, everything about me felt like it was slipping away.”
'NO REGRETS'
Yet Sarah-Jane previously told how she has no regrets for laying naked next to some prop peas in the campaign as she took to Instagram to write: "It’s 10 years to the day that a picture was taken that changed the projection of my life completely."
There is so much speculation about how ‘this picture’ got me fired from CBeebies but the truth is there was already a producer that hated me & wanted to get rid of me.
"This picture merely lit the match to a bonfire that had already been built for me.
"Im so grateful though & I now know, even when life doesn’t go the way you want it to, things can turn out better than you wished for anyway.
"Without that bonfire I would never have met my husband @aydencallaghan I would never have had my two children, my boys, Phoenix and Indiana Fox whom I live for &… I would never have known real happiness."
She went on: "I will always be impulsive (I either do or do nothing, there is no in between for me)."
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Sarah-Jane wasn't paid for the photoshoot and did it for "a bit of fun".
She previously told The Sun: "The BBC was asked to comment, and they simply said I no longer worked for them.
"That was how I found out. There was never a phone call or a single conversation with my bosses – despite me having worked there for 10 years."
HAPPIER TIMES
Sarah-Jane and Ayden’s first son, Phoenix, now six, was born in August 2015, and the pair married in September 2016.
In January 2018, they welcomed the arrival of their second son, Indiana, now four.
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The family live in Lincoln, where Sarah-Jane runs the Curious Theatre School.
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