Ms Rantzen told the Times newspaper that had ChildLine existed in the 1950s she would have rung it. She has never had therapy to deal with her trauma and the relative in question is now dead.
She added: ?Time helped. But even now, if I see him in my mind?s eye, he looks like a spider. It doesn?t compare to some of the stories I?ve heard on ChildLine but it has given me a certain insight.?
Her disclosure contrasts completely with previous accounts of her upbringing in which she suggests she had had a happy childhood.
She once wrote of her mother, Katherine, that she ?fought like a tiger to defend my sister and me whenever she felt we were threatened?. Ms Rantzen stayed at home until she was 29.
ChildLine was created after a notorious case in 1984 when a toddler starved to death, locked in a bedroom. At the time, Ms Rantzen was a star of the TV show That?s Life!, a popular consumer protection programme.
She presented a one-off television special, Childwatch, inviting adults to discuss their abusive childhoods. A helpline which opened for 48 hours after the programme aired was jammed with calls from children.
To found ChildLine she won support from the NSPCC, talked BT?s chairman into providing an easy-to-recall free number and persuaded Ian Skipper, the philanthropist, to hand over �500,000. The helpline has been copied by 150 countries.
Harry, her father, died in 1992 ?absolutely uncomplaining and adored by the people who looked after him?. Her mother, who sat on the board of a nursery, died in 2005. ChildLine is on: 0800-1111
Peter Graves Joel Grey Robert Guillaume Buddy Hackett Halston
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