Kirstie Allsopp has been reported to social services for allowing her 15-year-old son to interrailing around Europe.
The Location, Location, Location presenter allowed her son, Oscar, to go travelling across Europe with a 16-year-old friend this summer but had since been contacted by a social worker who informed her that a file had been opened after child protection concerns were raised.
She told The Mail on Sunday: « I just felt sick – absolutely sick. Then I was cross. I was very, very cross.
« It was just so extraordinary. I was in a parallel universe where they were actually taking this seriously.
« I have broken no law and nothing about allowing my child to travel around Europe is neglectful. »
It comes after Allsopp tweeted earlier this week about Oscar returning from a nine-day train trip around Europe, writing on X she was « proud of him », adding: « If we’re afraid our children will also be afraid, if we let go, they will fly. »
But she has come under fire for allowing the teen to travel independently.
Allsopp says the social worker « wanted to know what safeguards you put in place for your son’s travel » but she became « incandescent » and informed the official it was none of her business and that she was ending the call.
Allsopp said officials did not understand that she had been targeted by someone falsely alleging neglect. She has not been told how the referral had been made, or by whom.
A file was opened on Oscar and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local council, said it could be kept open « in case there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further ».
She told the Mail: « For me, that was the sucker punch – the idea this file might continue existing.
« What (the official) said to me was, ‘if in six months there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further, it would be important that we had kept a note of the first referral’.
« That was the Orwellian moment. The fact it was maliciously done wasn’t coming home to her. »
A spokesperson for RBKC told the paper: « Safeguarding children is an absolute priority. We take any referral we receive very seriously and we have a statutory responsibility for children under 18 years of age. »
They said it was « standard practice » for records to be retained until a child’s 25th birthday.
