'This Morning' TV star Ashley James says she was 'bullied' when she appeared on 'Made in Chelsea'

TV star Ashley James, who is best known for appearing on ‘This Morning’ and ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ has said she was 'bullied' by the cast of ‘Made in Chelsea’ during her time on the E4 reality show.

Speaking on the hit podcast ‘Walking The Dog’, the 37-year-old TV personality, who is now a mum, a presenter and a DJ, said that she originally signed up for ‘Made In Chelsea’ back in 2013 as she was looking for a way in to the broadcasting industry.

During the podcast, she said that appearing on the show 'wasn't a very pleasant experience' for her. She claimed this was because only one member of her fellow castmates spoke to her when the cameras stopped rolling.

She told podcast host Emily Rebecca Dean: “I just so wanted to be liked, and I was so paranoid about not being liked, that I'm actually going to say it was the first sort of experience I had being a bit bullied or made to feel like I wasn't wanted. It just wasn't very nice, and it really confused me being part of something that wasn't real.”

Fans of ‘Made in Chelsea’ will know that the show features what’s termed as ‘structured reality’, and previous participants have spoken out about how the situations seen in the show would be created by the producers. James continued: “I just didn't have my mental health, it was not good. The whole thing to me I took to heart and found really challenging.”

The mother-of-two, who is mum to three-year-old Alfie and one-year-old Ada, also spoke about how she had to contend with the “stereotypes” of being on reality TV, despite only appearing in 11 episodes of the show during seasons four and five.

She went on: “It wasn't a very pleasant experience in my life. I was like I'm typecast but I'm still broke, this is s**t, I'm essentially an extra. It was unenjoyable, but I then had to still try and fight the assumption that ‘well, she's just a reality star’.

“I'm pleased I kind of stepped away from it when I did. I remember when I first went to film no one talked to me apart from Ollie Locke, and he was so lovely.” She finished talking about her time on the show by saying: “It was playing into that huge insecurity I had of being in these posh aristocratic environments and being the working class girl. I'm sure people would conduct themselves differently now with the benefits of hindsight. It was just not a very good time in my life, and it was a very sharp awakening into the celebrity world.”

Since appearing on the show, James has made regular appearances on ITV daytime show ‘This Morning’ both as a presenter and a contributor and she also began DJ-ing during the Covid-19 lockdown. On her Instagram page, @ashleylouisejames, where she has 400,000 followers, she also refers to herself as being a ‘voice for women’ as well as a presenter and broadcaster.