‘I was on Loose Women for decades – I can pinpoint | UK News

Carol McGiffin, who was on Loose Women on and off between 2000 and 2023, has recalled the second which, in her opinion, “broke the camel’s back”. The 66-year-old broadcaster left after refusing to signal a new contract, citing “free speech” points with ITV. In a current interview with Andrew Gold, she opened up about her expertise on the discuss show, sharing: “I started in 2000, so I was there for 13 years and left for five, and then I went back. And back in the day, it was absolutely brilliant – even I sit there looking at the old clips on YouTube and just think, ‘Wow, that show was brilliant.’ It was hilarious, it was funny, everybody got on, it was sassy – it was just completely different.” Changing her tone of voice, she laughed and admitted it’s “not like that” anymore before revealing how a lot she used to get censored.

“I got censored so many times I cannot tell you,” she added. “We would sit in a meeting and talk about what we were going to be talking about on the show, and I would say something, and they’d be like, ‘No, you can’t say that.’”

Carol then claimed everybody had to “kind of agree with each other” and feels they “still do it now”.

The star alleged: “I am pretty sure there are people on that show who don’t think like that, but they do because they want to keep their job.”

When requested what she was initially allowed to say during her early years on Loose Women, which she reportedly wasn’t later in a position to, Carol said: “Well, we didn’t have the fake pandemic then. That was the straw which broke the camel’s back, really.”

Carol expanded: “When I watch the clips, I go, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe we were allowed to say that.’ In some of the skits we used to do with half-naked men, it was just a laugh, and the men were very willing. We didn’t have them tied up around the back. We always got a little bit slated for it but, you know, it was funny, it was just fun. It was a bit embarrassing!”

The former Loose Women star then claimed she would have “massive arguments” with Carol Vorderman about what she may or couldn’t say on the programme.

She gave an instance where they reportedly disagreed over the moon touchdown during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, as Carol didn’t imagine it occurred, just as she said the COVID pandemic was “fake”.

Carol said: “I watched it on the telly when I was nine years old and I kept looking at it thinking, ‘Nah, that’s not possible, we can’t go to the moon.’”

Loose Women airs on weekdays on ITV and ITVX.