Carol McGiffin brands ITV Loose Women ‘boring’ in scathing rant three years on from exit: ‘Rich, whinging women!’
Former Loose Women panellist Carol McGiffin has launched a blistering attack on the ITV daytime programme, demanding it be taken off air and dismissing it as dull and unwelcoming.
The 66-year-old, who spent more than two decades appearing on the show across separate stints, used her Best magazine column to deliver a withering assessment of the programme she once called home.
Ms McGiffin described the current incarnation as “boring, strained, unfriendly” and accused the panel of being “too many rich, whinging women going on about the menopause or their terrible lives.”
The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant concluded her column with a stark demand, urging producers to pull the plug, writing: “Time to let it go.”
Carol McGiffin blasted Loose Women and the presenters
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ITV has been approached for comment over the former panelist’s remarks.
In her column, Ms McGiffin drew a vivid parallel between the programme’s deterioration and the anguish of losing a loved one.
“There’s nothing worse than having to watch someone you love die a slow, painful death but it’s also painful to watch when something you loved dies a slow death,” she wrote.
“And so it is, in my opinion, with Loose Women. It’s been happening for a while but now it seems to be in its final throes.”
Carol McGiffin had stints on Loose Women from 2003 to 2013 and 2018 to 2023 | GB NEWS
She contrasted the current output with what she remembered fondly.
“Loose Women used to be a show full of humour, with strong sassy women, innuendo and risqué topics,” she said.
“It was a joy to do and an even bigger joy to watch. Watching now it’s a sad shadow of its former self.”
Ms McGiffin’s broadside comes in the wake of significant production cutbacks at Loose Women, which have seen the studio reduced in size and the live audience scrapped entirely.
Carol McGiffin has launched a blistering attack on the ITV daytime programme
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The broadcaster first joined the panel in 2000, quickly establishing herself as a regular alongside fellow mainstays Denise Welch, Kaye Adams and Coleen Nolan.
She departed in 2013 before making a comeback five years later in 2018.
Her second spell on the programme ended in 2023, when she walked away for good following a disagreement over her contract terms.
Earlier this month, Denise Welch also left the show, prompting Ms McGiffin to take an initial swipe at the programme before escalating her criticism in this latest column.
Carol McGiffin (second from the right) on Loose Women in 2008
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Ms McGiffin has previously spoken openly about the circumstances of her departure, revealing that ITV had presented her with contract conditions she found impossible to accept.
“The problem was, 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 wrote in Best at the time.
She also acknowledged the toll the negotiations had taken on her wellbeing. “And I know it looks like I’ve thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health,” she admitted.
Her latest attack is not the first time she has criticised the programme’s direction. In a previous interview with TNT talk radio, Ms McGiffin argued the show had become “too woke,” lamenting that modern television was far more restricted than when she began her career.
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