Anne replied: “Susie Dent is great Rachel Riley is completely brilliant at the maths.”
“You just didn’t get on well?” Piers probed. “No, I didn’t not get on,” the departing Countdown host hit back.
“But some performers like a lot of noise around them before they go on air and others like me, who are trying to get the contestants to remember what their hobbies are, would like some quiet while she’s doing that so it was important to me that we took her mic off so that I could have [quiet].”
She joined mathematician Rachel and lexicographer Susie in an all female line-up on the daytime show, with her first instalment broadcast on June 28.
A former journalist, Anne became known for her cutting remarks to contestants when she presented Weakest Link, which ran from 2000 until 2012.