Melissa Hoyer reveals her horrifying incident with paedophile Rolf Harris following his death at 93

Melissa Hoyer has spoken about her terrifying experience of meeting late paedophile entertainer Rolf Harris after his death was announced on Tuesday.

The TV host revealed she was interviewing the disgraced Australian star in the 1990s when he asked her to go back to his hotel room.

‘There will be many #RolfHarris stories: remember interviewing him early 90s and he asked me to his room at Sydney’s Intercon hotel,’ she wrote on Twitter.

‘Fortunately, his publicist grabbed me and said “no need for that”. Said he wanted to show me his ‘extra leg’ & wobble board. And no, that is not a joke.’

MailOnline revealed on Tuesday that disgraced Australian star Rolf had died aged 93, after a battle with neck cancer.

The sex offender has already been ‘laid to rest’ following a secret funeral.

A private ambulance was photographed outside his riverside home in the UK on May 11. Two sources close to the family told MailOnline that he died up to a fortnight ago but his death was only registered with Windsor and Maidenhead Council on Tuesday.

‘Many of us today are conflicted the way we go about reporting this. Because the world is not a sadder place that he’s gone but at the same time, we can’t deny the success he did have,’ Peter said on Sunrise.

‘The first story is what he was, a great entertainer and TV star. He was a huge star, recording star, he was considered one of our great ambassadors internationally. None of that can be denied. What he became of course was disgraced,’ he added.

The disgraced TV star had been ‘very sick’ with neck cancer since leaving prison six years ago, living as a near-recluse with his wife in their £5million riverside mansion in Bray.

The TV star revealed she was interviewing the disgraced Australian star in the 1990s when he asked her to go back to his hotel room

In a statement released by his solicitor, his family said: ‘Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest. They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made’.

Harris had been struggling to talk after cancerous tumours grew in his neck after he was freed from jail in 2017 for a string of sex offences including children as young as eight. He was fed through a tube before his death.

He is survived by his grandson Marlon, 25, daughter Bindi, 59, and wife Alwen, 91, a jeweller and sculptor. She is in a wheelchair because of Alzheimer’s disease but the couple, who married in 1958, lived together with the help of around the clock care.

Private investigator, author and former police officer William Merritt, author of the book Rolf Harris: The Truth behind the Trials, told MailOnline that he last met with him in late 2022, and he was gravely ill. He said: ‘Rolf has been very sick. When I saw him he was able to speak to me. He was with it, but he was obviously unwell’.

The Australian-born TV presenter was a family favourite for decades before being convicted of a string of indecent assaults in June 2014. 

MailOnline revealed on Tuesday that disgraced Australian star Rolf had died aged 93, after a battle with neck cancer

These included one on an eight-year-old autograph hunter, two on girls in their early teens and a catalogue of abuse against his daughter’s friend over 16 years. He was jailed for five years and nine months after being convicted of 12 assaults which took place between 1968 and 1986.

He was released on parole in May 2017 after serving three years behind bars.

Of the 12 convictions, one was overturned on appeal in November 2017, and a jury chose not to convict him in two additional cases in the same year.

Best known for hits Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and Jake The Peg, as well as a string of children’s TV hits, Harris also famously painted the 80th birthday portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

Harris hadn’t spoken publicly since his release from jail in 2017 but released a statement in Mr Merritt’s recently released book Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials.

The sex offender has already been ‘laid to rest’ following a secret funeral

‘I understand we live in the post truth era and know few will want to know what really happened during the three criminal trials I faced – it’s easier to condemn me and liken me to people like Saville and Glitter,’ Harris said.

‘I was convicted of offences I did not commit in my first trial. That is not just my view but the view of the Court of Appeal who overturned one of my convictions. I had already served the prison sentence by the time of the appeal.

‘I changed my legal team after the first trial, and I was told that if the truth was out there, William (Merritt) would find it and he did.

‘The evidence he found proved my innocence to two subsequent juries.

‘I’d be in prison serving a sentence for crimes I did not commit if it were not for William’s investigation.

‘It is difficult to put into words the injustice that I feel.’

A private ambulance was photographed outside his riverside home in the UK on May 11. Two sources close to the family told MailOnline that he died up to a fortnight ago but his death was only registered with Windsor and Maidenhead Council on Tuesday