Sir Cliff Richard found it “horrific, traumatic, and emotionally draining” when he was falsely accused of sex abuse in 2014

Speaking about the experience during an appearance on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ on Saturday (17.11.18), he said: “I’ve had four terrible years and it was horrific. My best quote is that I can say that I would never wish that on my worst enemy. It was tumultuous, horrific, emotionally draining, traumatic … It felt like I was in thick mud, I can’t describe it any better. A hole, and I didn’t know how to get out. I didn’t know what to do. Thank God for friends and thank God for God.”

Cliff, 78, found out the police were at his home when he was at his second home in Portugal, and felt it was “intrusive” and “heartbreaking”.

He added: “I was at my house in Portugal and my sister and a couple of friends were going north of us to a vineyard ... We were leaving at 10, at five to 10 my phone rang and it was the management from my apartment block saying, ‘The Police are here and they are outside your door and they want us to let them in.’ And I said, ‘If they have a warrant, you can’t stop them, you have to let them in.’ And anyway, the door was really good and I didn’t want them to break it down.

“I only went back to that apartment once, to collect my clothes. It was worse than being burgled … In the end it was just heartbreaking for me that anyone would even think it possible for that accusation to be true … There was no substance to it and that’s what makes it so ugly for me. The only thing that anybody knew, and I knew, was that there had been an accusation. There had been no investigation yet. It was very unfair.”

The ‘Living Doll’ hitmaker then urged people to “not say anything” negative about people before they know if what they’re saying is true.

He said: “I can understand someone saying, ‘Well we didn’t know whether he was guilty or not.’ Well if you don’t know, you shouldn’t say anything. If you knew I was guilty then of course say something.”