BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty reveals she was branded useless by bosses

BBC Breakfast channel Naga Munchetty has admitted she was labeled ‘b***dy useless’ by bosses in the early days of her career.

The TV host and journalist, 47, has said she “thrown a copy at her” and left the office in “streams of tears.”

To talk with radio timesNaga said the harsh treatment made her better at her job in the long run.

She said, “When I first started working in newspapers, I was thrown a copy. I was told I was fucking useless.

‘I often went home in tears, but I also learned not to make mistakes, that mistakes were not acceptable.

She said it made her ‘do her research twice as well and to the best of her ability’.

“That fear of making mistakes meant you did your research twice as well, and as best you could,” she explains.

“I remember when I first decided I wanted to investigate it on the air, I was told, ‘You’re quite sensitive.’

‘You take criticism very hard and you dwell on things. You have to get tougher.’ And I did.’

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for more information.

Naga recently revealed that in the past she has tried to “hide” her Asian heritage to fit in.

The presenter admitted that she tried to distance herself from her Asian background in her younger years.

She told the BBC: ‘I know what it’s like to hide parts of my whole self, to downplay my Asian heritage – it’s hard to acknowledge I did it, and hard to admit. From an early age I felt I had to do that, so that I could fit in more easily.’

Naga discussed how she first encountered racism as a seven-year-old, and that experience has stayed with her ever since.

“I’ve experienced racism,” she said. “You never forget the first time you hear that painful and disturbing word. I was seven when someone I thought was a friend at school told me we could no longer hang out.

“They used the p-word to make it clear that the color of my skin was the reason. The sense of shame was overwhelming.

“I was told I didn’t belong, but until then I assumed I was. From that moment on I knew I was seen as different. That first pain never goes away.’

Naga also revealed that her parents have experienced racism in the UK, saying: ‘I grew up in South London.

‘My father was from Mauritius and my mother was from India. Both were nurses. They too received racist insults at work, including the p-word.’

And Naga vividly recalls trying to hide her home life from her classmates, saying, “I remember being paranoid about the smell of the curries my mom was cooking when I was at school.”

Since becoming a prominent face of BBC Breakfast, Naga has also spoken out about the abuse she has received from viewers online.

In 2016, Naga said she was “not there to be abused” when she spoke out about the horrific racist and sexist abuse she was bombarded with on Twitter.

She said she accepted that criticism is part of her role in the public eye, but she will always appeal to those who are simply abusive.

Previous tweets have claimed that the award-winning journalist only works for the BBC because of her ethnicity, but have also criticized her hair, glasses and even unsavory sexual comments.

She previously told the Daily Mirror: ‘I’m on television, I’m in your house, so if you want to criticize me, fine. But I’m not here to be abused. No one is there to be abused.

“You don’t abuse someone while they are doing their job, and you don’t make racist, sexist or bigoted comments.

“If someone says, ‘She did that interview badly, I got away and didn’t understand anything,’ I would go back and watch that interview again. Racist and sexist stuff, I just think, “You’re an idiot.”‘

Naga is the second longest-serving member of the current presentation team, joining the show in 2009, before becoming a lead host in 2014.

Read the full interview in Radio Times, out now.