Loose Women star slams 'boring' show' - 'I won't be told what I can or cannot say!'
Carol McGiffin is nothing if not straight-talking - and during our exclusive shoot with her and husband Mark Cassidy at a beautiful vineyard in the south of France, where she now lives most of the year, she was certainly true to form.
Speaking of ITV chatshow Loose Women, which Carol was a popular panellist on until her shock departure in April 2023, the star, 64, admitted that she misses being a part of it - but for various reasons would never go back, including that nowadays, she personally finds the show ‘boring’.
“It was once a great job. But it doesn’t really have many alternative opinions now”, she explained. “I do watch it occasionally, to remind myself that I made the right decision.”
And regarding whether she regrets leaving the show, she replied: “No, I don’t regret leaving – I don’t fit in there any more. Someone, somewhere will be offended by absolutely everything. I’d rather not be on a show that panders to that. It’s boring – and I won’t be told what I can or can’t say.”
That aside, Carol admitted that there are some members of the panel with whom she stays in touch with and sees when she can.
“I’m still very good friends with a lot of the Loose ladies. Denise Welch popped down here with Lincoln [Townley, her husband] last year and we met them for lunch.
“I’ve seen Kaye [Adams], Jane [Moore] and Nadia [Sawalha] a few times. Some, I have nothing in common with. As I said to them, ‘You’re not friends, you’re just people I work with, who I really like.’ Which horrified them!”
Carol had been an on-off panellist on the ITV chat show ever since 2000, but in an interview with Best magazine at the time of her departure, claimed that behind-the-scenes issues had forced her step away from the show.
The presenter later addressed her exit in an explosive interview on GB News when she said: “Well put it this way, reading all the comments from the article at the weekend there are a lot of people who think the programme has gone very, very woke.”
In April of this year, Carol took to Instagram to tell her followers: "Apparently, some people are missing me. Not because I haven't been on here for ages but because I'm not on that daytime ITV show I used to do, Loose Women." She continued: "Sadly that little job isn't coming back but I'm not totally retired yet."
Carol is currently working on her second memoir, amongst other projects.
Carol and Mark were at the Hotel Saint Vincent and vineyard. For more information, visit hotelsaintvincent.com
