Nicola McLean says she was sexually assaulted by masseur in her own home

Nicola McLean has claimed she was sexually assaulted by a masseur in her own home.

The TV personality opened up about the horror assault this week.

The mother-of-two says she has suffered nightmares, severe anxiety and the return of an eating disorder since the attack, which happened last year.

Nicola, 38, said the incident happened after she decided to have an £18,000 “mummy makeover”, with new 32FF boobs and liposuction.

After the surgery, in which five litres of fat were removed, Nicola felt very weak and needed to take iron supplements.

The beauty, who lives in Bucks with her husband - retired Peterborough United footballer Tom Williams - commented: “I was in bed for weeks, barely able to lift my head. I felt exhausted. I’ve never felt so ill in my life.”

Nicola said Tom was able to care for her at first, but when he had to return to work running his concierge company, she told herself she had to “man up”.

On June 13 — their tenth wedding anniversary — the masseur arrived at the house for their scheduled session and immediately commented on Tom’s absence.

Near the end of the hour-long visit, Nicola said the male masseuse asked if he could massage her legs, which struck her as strange as she had not had liposuction on them.

She told The Sun: “I wasn’t really very with it so I said it was OK. I was lying on my front and he started massaging my inner thighs and then he kept going up.

“You have to wear a special garment after liposuction that fits around your abdomen and the top of your thighs but is open at the crotch so you can go to the toilet. You can’t wear knickers with it.

“I was utterly petrified. I was in the house on my own and I was completely helpless. I was searching through my mind as to whether there were any heavy objects in the room but I was just so weak.

“All I could do was lie there and wait for it to be over. I’ve no idea how long it went on for. In my mind it was about 15 minutes — all the while I could hear his heavy breathing."

Nicola says she is a "feisty" woman, but wasn't strong enough to do anything.

The star said she bolted the front door after the masseuse left and sat on her bed, numb, before calling Tom who had flown to the US on business.

She said: “Tom was very supportive. He felt horrendous being so far away but he was really brilliant. I told him I didn’t want to talk about it again.”

Days after the incident though, Nicola said her attacker began messaging her and "being super-friendly" - which she found "odd".

Talking about the incident, Nicola said: “I’ve seen all the statistics about domestic ­violence and abuse going up during lockdown.

“I felt like I couldn’t escape that day and I can’t imagine being in that situation day after day, feeling like you can’t get away. I want to say to anyone out there being abused — you can escape.”