The BBC presenter targeted in a Sunday Times article branded antisemitic, racist and misogynistic has spoken of her hurt at reading the piece.

Vanessa Feltz said she felt 'extremely upset' by the abuse which suggested that she and Claudia Winkleman – the two highest paid female presenters at the BBC – reached the top because they were Jewish.

Speaking on BBC Radio London, where she presents the breakfast show, Feltz said the comment article written by Kevin Myers was 'so obviously racist it's surprisingly hurtful' and questioned how none of the editors spotted it.

'I would have thought after all these years I'd be immune or used to it, but that's not at all how I felt. I felt extremely upset.

'The apologies are all very well but how did it end up in the paper in the first place?' she said.

The Sunday Times' editor Martin Ivens rang her up personally to apologise, Feltz revealed, telling her he was horrified.

The article was published in the paper's Irish version and was titled 'Sorry, ladies – equal pay has to be earned'.

Commenting on BBC figures that revealed that two-thirds of its top earners taking home more than £150,000 are male, author Myers wrote: 'Good for them.

'Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity.'

He also argued that men get paid more because they 'work harder, get sick less frequently and seldom get pregnant'.

The paper's Irish editor Frank Fitzgibbon said he took full responsibility and said: 'This newspaper abhors anti-Semitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.'

A spokesman for News UK, which owns The Sunday Times, said the column included 'unacceptable comments both to Jewish people and to women in the workplace'.