ITV series Loose Women was last year accused of having a ‘toxic’ culture, with one celebrity agent calling it “a cut-throat place to work”.
At the time, the agent in question, Melanie Blake, became one of a growing list of people who gave the ITV daytime show some bad press in recent years – many of them being former panellists.
Here’s our rundown of all the former Loose Women stars who have badmouthed the show – and, perhaps more importantly, exactly what they had to say.
Loose Women: Carol Vorderman on the ITV show
Vorders appeared on the Loose Women panel from 2011 to 2014. Despite her stint being relatively short compared to others, she was a popular addition, recently winning a poll about which past presenter should make comeback.
However, it seems the feeling wasn’t mutual, as Carol shared the poll to her own Instagram, with the savage caption: “I’ve answered that with a big NOOOOOO… I think that should do it.”
Sherrie Hewson
Soap star Sherrie was very much part of the furniture at Loose Women at once stage, serving as a regular presenter from 2003 right up until 2016. While she has said she loved her time on the show, she was willing to admit: “We had lots of ups and downs.” Cryptic…!
She went on to reveal: “We had the most amazing rows. It was all real, it wasn’t put on.”
Sherrie has also criticised the show for becoming “too PC” since she left, claiming panellists no longer have the “freedom” to say what they think.
Loose Women: Carol McGiffin criticises ITV show
Carol McGiffin was another OG panellist, joining Loose Women when it first aired in 2000 and sticking around for the best part of the next 23 years. However, she made a shock exit from the show last year following an alleged bust-up with ITV.
It’s not a place where I feel I fit in.
“ITV were insisting, for the first time since I went back in 2018, that if I wanted to carry on doing the show, I would have to sign a contract that was totally unjust and unworkable for me, so I had to say no thanks,” she alleged to Best magazine.
In a subsequent appearance on GB News, she echoed Sherrie’s concerns about the show becoming too censored, saying: “Put it this way, there are a lot of people who think the programme has gone very, very woke….It’s not a place where I feel I fit in.”
Jenny Eclair
Comedian Jenny Eclair also had a falling out with Loose Women, where she only ended up lasting a year.
“I was absolutely sacked! They no longer wanted me on that show. I was furious,” she recently claimed on a podcast. Even a decade later, she admitted: “I still get furious about that!”
Saira Khan
Apprentice star Saira Khan is yet another former Loose Woman who has slagged off the show.
Saira left the job after five years in 2021. While at the time she blamed pandemic pressures, she has since opened up about her real reason for quitting.
“I couldn’t be who I wanted to be on TV,” she said in an interview. “On Loose Women you saw me being quite feisty. But that’s the silo they put me in. I wanted to have a bit of fun, but that wasn’t for me, that was for Stacey Solomon. Stacey was the fun one, but I had to be the ‘loud, gobby one’.”
She went on to bizarrely claim that the final straw for her to leave came when show bosses suggested she start an OnlyFans.
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV1 at 12.30pm.
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