Denise Welch is set to make her return to the Loose Women panel on Thursday’s show!
The former Coronation Street and Waterloo Road actress has spent five years away from the lunchtime programme, and has said she can’t wait to return to catch up with her fellow panellists.
The “breaking showbiz news” was revealed on today’s show as host Ruth Langsford cut to ITV newsreader Charlene White.
Charlene announced: “We interrupt the programme with some breaking news. Tomorrow’s show will feature the return of a Loose Legend as Denise Welch makes her explosive return to the show.
“Sources say she will be joining the panel for some fun and feisty conversation when she returns to the nation’s most famous desk.”
They then cut to Denise, 60, who said: “I am very excited. It has been five years since I sat on that famous panel and a lot has happened in the world. And by jove, a lot has happened in my life.
“So I can’t wait to let the girls know what I have been up to, what I am up to now, and I can’t wait to find out about how things have changed for them. I am very excited.”
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The news was greeted by a round of applause and cheering from the Loose Women studio audience.
The popular presenter appeared on more than 500 episodes before taking a break from the show in 2013.
The same year she married her third husband, Lincoln Townley.
In a recent interview, she said meeting him “turned her life around” as she had been struggling with depression and turning to alcohol to cope.
Now she’s given up the booze and she said her son, Matthew, 29, of the band 1975 is delighted.
“My son Matthew is a hugely successful musician. He said to me, ‘Mum, if you hadn’t met Lincoln and turned your life around, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing’,” she told the Daily Record.
She said if she hadn’t given up alcohol, “it would have been a very different outcome for everyone involved.”
She also has a son Louis, 17, from her second marriage to Tim Healy.
Denise also quit smoking and started healthy eating so she said she now feels in the shape of her life.
“I’m mentally and physically much better and stronger than I was turning 50 and 40,” she said.
Careerwise she’s also been busy since being away from Loose Women. She has appeared on shows such as Doctors and Holby City, and on stage in Calendar Girls.
On Thursday’s Loose Women, Denise will be a guest panellist alongside her original Loose co-stars Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha, as well as Stacey Solomon.
Denise said: “I can’t wait to be back on Loose Women. I’ve missed the ladies, I’ve missed the chat and I’ve missed the banter! I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve been up to.”
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Loose Women editor Sally Shelford said: “Denise has always been a much-loved member of the Loose Women family and played an important part in the show’s 19 year history.
“It’s fitting that as we’ve just celebrated 3000 episodes, we welcome back one of Loose Women’s most memorable faces. We can’t wait to have her back on the panel for some of her trademark fun and feisty opinions.”
Are you looking forward to seeing Denise back on Loose Women? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!