This Morning's political and social affairs correspondent, Ashley James, rose to fame in 2012 on E4 reality show Made in Chelsea, despite hailing from Northumberland, and intriguingly titled her new book Bimbo - even though she is both intelligent and successful.

With a 2:1 degree in English and French literature, she regularly challenges Piers Morgan and Nick Ferrari on the ITV daytime show and recently appeared on Celebrity Mastermind. Like Lady Constance Lytton - the 19th century suffragette who was her chosen subject (scoring 8 with no passes) - she is also an activist. Now, she is courageously waiving her right to anonymity, as a victim of rape, to advocate for improved support for victims of sexual assault and to "change the conversation" about rape. She confided in an interview to The Mirror: "While at university, I was raped. It's something I've never spoken about, and yet I've thought about it every day since - increasingly so since having children It's one of the very worst moments of my life." Ashley, 38, who was 21 when the attack occurred, continued: "It was hugely traumatic. I'm not telling the story to shock, but as a mirror to show how common these experiences are, and also how broken the support system is."

According to the Office for National Statistics, 83-90% of female victims, like Ashley, are sexually assaulted by someone they know. ONS data also reveals that 86% of sexual assault victims are women - a figure that increases to 91% in instances of rape.

Ashley, who has chosen not to disclose her attacker's identity, emphasises that she now recognises she was not at fault. She stated: "It wasn't my fault. Yes I was drunk, yes I was in going out clothes. But it wasn't my fault. I know that now. As a culture and as a society, we still very much victim blame. We teach women how not to be raped, instead of teaching men how not to rape. Men can stop raping us.

"Because of the shame, taboo and stigma, people still think these [men who rape] are bad apples, or strangers in alleyways, and it's not the case. We need to acknowledge it and tell our daughters to stop modifying their behaviour; stop questioning what people are wearing - we need to change the conversation."

Ashley, who shares two children, Ada, who turns three in March, and Alfie, five, with her partner of six years, City worker Tommy Andrews, did not report her rape. She admits: "I didn't come forward. Not because I thought the police wouldn't believe me, but because the man wasn't a stranger in a dark alley. He was a friend. Because of that, the only person I blamed was myself ... for years. Even now I find it hard to think of him as a rapist. But I was literally unconscious."

Her motivation to come forward stemmed from Gisèle Pelicot, the victim at the heart of France's largest rape trial. Her husband Dominique Pelicot, 73, received a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of drugging her and enlisting 50 other men to rape her over a decade.

Gisèle waived her right to anonymity to publicly attend the trial and said of rape victims: "It's not for us to have shame - it's for them."

Ashley explains: "She turned up every single day with her head held high and said 'the shame needs to change sides'. If anything ever happened to my daughter, I would never want her to live with the shame and silence that I felt that I've lived with. Sexual assault is an area where there's still a lot of shame and taboo. The system still doesn't support women. It almost feels like the woman is put on trial more than the man who is accused of rape."

Ashley also highlighted the challenges facing children with special educational needs (SEN) - having revealed to her 688,000 Instagram followers last year that Alfie was undergoing a SEN assessment. Also a DJ, podcast host and parenting commentator, she nearly lost him during childbirth.

She explained: "He came out blue. They were worried about Alfie. It wasn't a good birth, it was very traumatic, and he's still having to have a lot of osteo [osteopathy] to help him."

Discussing his SEN assessment, she elaborated: "I suspect it's autism, but it's too soon for an official diagnosis. The school has been amazing at working with him rather than against him. I feel really grateful that we live in a time where it's acknowledged and taken seriously. He's very high functioning and I love the way his brain works. He is amazing. Some children process things differently to others - they're not being naughty or rude. If we were more accepting of the ways different minds operate it would be a better world."

His SEN assessment has also provided Ashley with insight into why early parenthood proved challenging - something she speaks openly about. She explained: "My mental health declined because I felt like - 'is this my life now' If your career is a big part of your identity, or you travel, then you're suddenly stripped away from all of that and you're supposed to find fulfilment in the monotony of doing the same thing every day."

Bimbo: Ditch the Labels, Find Your Voice, Reclaim Your Confidence by Ashley James (£22, Century) is out on Feb 12.