Smillie admits being Mensa cheat

Smillie admits being Mensa cheat

Smillie said a friend helped her with the IQ test

TV presenter Carol Smillie could be kicked out of Mensa, the club for the world's most intelligent people, after admitting she cheated in her entrance test.

Her name has been removed from a list of famous Mensa members on the society's website.

The move came after she told an interviewer that a friend helped her with the most difficult parts of the exam, which she took to prove game show hostesses were not dumb.

Only the most clever 2% of the population can join Mensa, meaning members must have an IQ of at least 131 - depending on the method of testing.

The former Changing Rooms presenter said her Mensa test was not done under exam conditions.

"It started quite straightforward and got progressively more difficult," she told BBC Radio Scotland in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

'Guilty'

"I did two-thirds of it, and when it got a bit sticky at the end I phoned a friend of mine and he finished it for me.

"I felt quite guilty, but I'm glad that I cheated," she added.

A spokeswoman for British Mensa told BBC News Online that any full member who claimed to have cheated would be asked if they wanted to take the test again.

"If they declined that, then obviously they would no longer be a member," she said.

The presenter, who took the test when hostess of Wheel of Fortune, had been listed on Mensa's website alongside Sir Jimmy Savile and TV critic Garry Bushell.