A Norwegian rock singer has apologised after he was publicly called out by Julia Morris for groping her during a live interview at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.
Earlier this week, Morris, 57, shared footage to social media of the disturbing incident, which saw Nilsen touch and kiss her without permission during an interview, and slammed his behaviour.
Wig Wam vocalist Åge Sten ‘Glam’ Nilsen, 55, exclusively told Daily Mail that his behaviour in the interview did not reflect his true character, as his senses were impaired during the incident.
‘What’s missing [from Morris’ account] is that BBC knew I was blind drunk at an afterparty, in costume and in character as my alter ego Glam,’ Nilsen said.
‘What could possibly go wrong? I apologised 19 years ago in a BBC interview about the interview, and just did again.’
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Norwegian rock singer Åge Sten ‘Glam’ Nilsen (pictured) has apologised after he was publicly called out by presenter Julia Morris for groping her during a live interview at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005
He added that at the time he thought it was a piece of ‘theatre’ and the actions did not reflect his true character.
‘That doesn’t take away my responsibility for my character’s improper behaviour though. It was rock ’n roll theatre and I thought BBC was in on it,’ he said.
It comes after Morris opened up about the shocking incident, in which the rock singer groped her during a live interview.
The footage, filmed backstage in Kyiv while she was hosting Eurovision coverage for the BBC, shows Glam entering the frame with a lit cigarette, before climbing on top of Morris as she sits on a couch.
‘Oh my God, what a lovely surprise!’ Morris said in her signature upbeat tone as Glam proceeded to straddle her and cradle her face.
The situation escalated as Glam kissed her on the cheek, put his arm around her, stroked her leg and, at one point, touched her chest – all while she remained visibly composed.
Morris captioned the footage with some shocking words: ‘Eurovision 2005, Kyiv. BBC. What a treat to turn up to work and be touched and disrespected by an all time f***wit.
‘Looking like I’m having fun is part of my job, but my not flinching is how common this behaviour was. I had a miscarriage the week before this, so being SA’d [sexually assaulted] live on tele was all I needed.’
Earlier this week, Morris shared footage to social media of the disturbing incident, which saw Nilsen touch and kiss her without permission during an interview, and slammed his behaviour
Wig Wam vocalist Åge Sten ‘Glam’ Nilsen told Daily Mail that his behaviour in the interview did not reflect his true character
She later told News.com.au that she felt she had to maintain an upbeat demeanour as part of her presenter role during the incident.
‘What’s really spooky is, I don’t even flinch. I suppose as a stand-up comedian, reading a room and adjusting is [the role]. What was I supposed to do?’ Morris said.
She added that she was going through a particularly difficult time during the incident which left her feeling vulnerable.
‘I was trying to make sure my pad didn’t move, because I had a miscarriage the week before,’ she said.
‘I had to have a massive f***ing pad. I mean, enormous.
‘And so, when old mate jumped on top of me, all I was thinking was, “My god, he’s going to squeeze it [the pad] out the back.” And all the while he is touching up my t*ts… And I was getting in trouble from the producers.’
She said there was now more awareness about how unacceptable this kind of behaviour was following the #MeToo movement, but revealed that back then it was not acceptable to speak out.
‘You didn’t have a voice. You certainly don’t have a choice of “Don’t speak to me like that”,’ she explained.
‘“A lot of young people now are like, “We’re the first to speak up about this.” And it’s like, “No, we all tried, we just got fired”.’
