Ex-EastEnders star Gemma Bissix was sexually assaulted at the age of 15

Gemma Bissix has is shared a big secret of her life as she revealed that she was sexually assaulted in the toilets of an awards ceremony aged 15, while she was a star on the BBC soap EastEnders.

The actress, now aged 39, said she was assaulted by a man who was in charge of caring for her that evening - who wasn't provided by EastEnders but was organised independently.

Gemma said she had felt like she was friends with the individual who was ten years older than her.

She said he got 'touchy-feely' and 'tried to kiss her' despite her laughing off his advances and telling him she wasn't interested, before he tried again.

A spokesperson for Gemma told MailOnline: 'EastEnders have always looked after Gemma and cared for her during her entire working time with them.

'This was an incident that happened completely outside of EastEnders' care.'

Speaking to The Sun about the incident, Gemma had said: 'Looking back now I should have reported them but I only know that now as a grown woman. At the time I was a child, I was under the age of 16.

'I wasn’t sexually active, I didn’t know what was going on, what they were trying to achieve. I just knew they were scary experiences.

'It makes me frustrated that they ever happened. Back then you were grateful to be famous so you kept your mouth shut and got on with it. It shouldn’t be like that.'

Gemma famously played Clare Bates in EastEnders - whose onscreen father was the hapless Nigel Bates, before famously going on to play Clare Devine in Hollyoaks.