TV star Ulrika Jonsson has told a Channel 4 documentary that she was raped by a casual date in the early days of her career.

Jonsson, whose kiss-and-tell autobiography has just been serialised in the press, makes the confession in Ulrika Jonsson: The Truth About Men, screened on Thursday at 2100 BST.

"It frightened me a lot. I became quite ill for a period after that," said Jonsson, who added that she was hospitalised for five days following the alleged assault.

She also confessed that she did not report the attack to the police.

"I genuinely felt that it would be my word, I guess, against his. And I think I felt ashamed."

The former weather girl also told the programme that she would have carried on her affair with England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson if it had not become front page news.

"I would never have wanted it to come out," she said, "because it was something I was able to keep private and personal for once, or certainly the beginning of it.

Maturity

"Secondly, the pressure is so intense and it became too much for me, which is why I chose to walk away.

"It became too much for me and my family to bear and I wanted to put an end to that."

Jonsson claimed that Eriksson pursued their "lovely Swedish friendship" relentlessly, and that she was attracted to "his age, maturity and calm".

She first met Sven Goran Eriksson at a party

According to her autobiography, Honest, the pair first met at a party held by Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

Their affair first hit the headlines in April, but Eriksson refused to acknowledge it and remained with his long-term partner Nancy Dell'Olio.

It was Jonsson who finally ended the speculation, issuing a statement admitting they had been close.

The programme also revisits Jonsson's turbulent love life following the break-up of her marriage to cameraman Jon Turnbull, father of her son Cameron.

Her relationship with footballer Stan Collymore ended after he was violent towards her, while German resort manager Marcus Kempen walked out on her just days after their daughter Bo was born with a heart defect.