Radio 2 vicar: ‘I’ve had my bottom pinched at a funeral’

A BBC Radio 2 vicar has told how her bottom was pinched by a man at a funeral, as she discussed being “sexualised” while dressed in her robes.

In an interview for Radio Sheffield’s The Naked Podcast, for which the guests and hosts are all nude, the Rev Kate Bottley, 43, disclosed that the incident happened a few years ago.

She said: “I remember being at a funeral in my full robes and a bloke pinching my a---. I asked him not to do it and he said he thought I would find it funny. Even in full robes at a funeral someone can come on to you. If you’re a woman, there will be someone, usually a bloke, who will find something to sexualise you for.” The Church of England vicar also said that she did not know why “Christians and people of faith are seen as such prudes” about sex.

She told Kat Harbourne and Jenny Eells, the hosts of the podcast: “Sex is one of the most beautiful things you can do in a loving couple.”

Rev Bottley also talked about how she was fed up with people commenting on her changing weight over the years.

“I do a lot of funerals and never in a eulogy have I mentioned what size someone is,” she said.

“I’ve talked about how much fun they’ve been and what they’ve achieved in their life and who they loved.

“People on their deathbed never talk about dusting, they never talk about diets – they talk about the people who they’ve loved.”