Victoria Derbyshire: BBC host reveals childhood abuse - beaten with belt & scalded by her father

In an interview with The Independent, BBC newsreader, Victoria Derbyshire, revealed how her father regularly beat her with a wooden spoon, struck her with a belt, and assaulted her mother so severely that he once broke a rib.

Reflecting on the traumatic domestic abuse her family suffered, Derbyshire recalled how her father once threw scalding soup on her school uniform and even placed his hands around her throat. She, her mother, brother, and sister eventually fled to her aunt's house, only to return later as “life kept drawing us back”.

Derbyshire said: “When I think about my childhood, it feels like domestic abuse was always there.” She explained that while the violence wasn’t constant, it was a regular part of their lives. “It was so, so normalised. I don’t want to minimise it,” she added. “It was just a feature of us growing up – me, my brother, my sister, and my mum.”

Speaking in support of The Independent's Brick by Brick campaign, in partnership with Refuge, which aims to raise £300,000 for a safe house for domestic abuse survivors, Derbyshire shared unprecedented details of her childhood experience.

Although her father, who passed away in 2020, denied hitting his children, she described a life overshadowed by fear. “If he came home and someone didn’t make him a cup of tea – it sounds pathetic, but he’d get angry,” she said. “He’d shout that the kettle was boiling, so you’d have to come into the kitchen, because he wouldn’t switch it off himself.”

Derbyshire explained how she would refuse to flinch when her father struck her. “It was my way of showing him that I couldn’t be riled,” she said. One such incident involved her father throwing scalding soup on her.

“We would hear my father’s key in the back door, and wherever we were in the house, we’d dash to our bedrooms and shut the door. We just didn’t want to be around him,” she said, describing how the family lived on edge, “walking on eggshells”.

Her father’s fits of violence had no clear catalyst, and he didn’t drink or have other obvious reasons for his rage. “He didn’t need an excuse,” she said. “It’s like we’d always done something wrong and needed to be hit.”

Though she later learned her father had also suffered abuse as a child, Derbyshire emphasised that this didn’t excuse his actions. “It doesn’t explain it. You have to break the cycle, don’t you?” she said.

One of the most chilling moments she recalled was when her father put his hands around her throat in front of her best friend. “He got me up against the pantry door, his hands around my neck. My best friend was there, shouting at him to get off me,” she recounted.

Reflecting on her childhood, Derbyshire explained that leaving the house wasn’t considered a viable option due to the practical challenges many survivors face. “We moved out to live with my mum’s sister for a while, but it didn’t work out. She lived absolutely miles away, so it was stressful just going to school every day,” she said. Eventually, they returned home. “School, pets – life kept drawing us back.”

Derbyshire acknowledged that much has changed since her childhood, particularly in how police handle domestic abuse cases today. “They’ve made so much progress. They have body cameras, they don’t interview the victim in the same room as the abuser – things have changed,” she said.

In 2020, Derbyshire made headlines when she hosted BBC News with a domestic abuse helpline number written on her hand, a move that went viral. Reflecting on her decision to speak out, she said: “Honestly, telling my story doesn’t bring up trauma.” She emphasized that domestic abuse doesn’t discriminate, saying: “It can happen to anyone. And it’s nothing to do with class or your job or money. If it helps to talk about it, then absolutely, I’ll talk.”

Despite the horrific abuse, Derbyshire credited her mother’s love and the bond with her siblings for helping them survive. “Thank God for Mum. Despite our experience, we’re pretty normal people. And that’s all down to her,” she said, adding that black humour helped them cope.

Derbyshire also reflected on how domestic abuse was viewed in the 1970s and 80s. “We didn’t call it domestic abuse back then,” she said. “That wasn’t a phrase I was aware of. Mum would never have gone to the police. She went to the GP after dad attacked her, breaking one of her ribs. The doctor’s note just read: ‘Husband trouble.’”

Derbyshire hopes to raise awareness and inspire change, adding: “I’m comfortable talking about it because domestic abuse doesn’t care about your class, or your job, or money or anything. Domestic abuse can happen to anyone – it could happen to you.”