{"id":593906,"date":"2026-09-08T12:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T12:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593906\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T12:56:12","slug":"ex-loose-women-star-says-itv-series-used-to-be-very-different-youve-got-to-be-very-careful-what-you-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593906\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Loose Women star says ITV series used to be \u2018very different\u2019: \u2018You\u2019ve got to be very careful what you say\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Actor and former Loose Women<\/a> panellist Sherrie Hewson has spoken about the change of climate on the long-running ITV chat show, claiming that it is \u201cvery different\u201d to what it used to be.<\/p>\n

Hewson, who featured on Loose Women regularly between 2003 and 2016, reflected on the show\u2019s changing sensibilities, speaking weeks after the departures of presenters Denise Welch<\/a> and Nadia Sawalha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Welch quit the series in August after 25 years with Loose Women. Sawalha claimed last month she had been \u201cbullied\u201d into leaving the show, alleging that ITV had temporarily axed her in July amid an \u201cescalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both departures follow budget cuts at ITV<\/a> that resulted in the length of each episode being cut from one hour to 30 minutes, and the studio audience being axed.<\/p>\n

\"'Loose‘Loose Women’ presenter Sherrie Hewson (Getty)<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Mirror<\/a>, Hewson claimed that Loose Women is \u201ca different show to what it once was\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cLoose Women in my day was extraordinary, because we didn’t have the problems we have now where you can’t say that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe didn’t have any of that, we just said what we thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the most I had unbelievable rows with Janet Street-Porter, but they were real rows. We were still friends afterwards and went out to dinner. You don’t see that anymore, but because we had the freedom to do it, it was a very different day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its current iteration, Hewson claimed that presenters have \u201cto be very careful, like everything on television now. You’ve got to be very careful what you say, how you say it. We just said what we thought, and somehow we got away with it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sawalha\u2019s departure from the series has proved a controversial topic; the TV star has threatened legal action against ITV, alleging that the broadcaster was \u201cforever changing the goalposts\u201d when it came to her return from her absence in July.<\/p>\n

She also pointed to her support of Palestine as being a factor in the \u201ccampaign\u201d against her.<\/p>\n

In a video shared on Instagram<\/a>, Sawalha said: \u201cI want to say how sad I am that it\u2019s got to this. Believe me, I have appealed to ITV\u2019s hearts and minds, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in December 2023, I became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Sawalha, the broadcaster \u201ccouldn\u2019t guarantee they wouldn\u2019t take me off again, as it would depend on what was said, even though I\u2019m hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I\u2019ve never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"NadiaNadia Sawalha on \u2018Loose Women\u2019 (ITV)<\/p>\n

ITV did not respond to a request for comment at the time.<\/p>\n

Another Loose Women panellist, Dame Kelly Holmes, responded to Sawalha\u2019s post, writing: \u201cThis is just not right or just. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am so sorry, Nadia, no one can even begin to comprehend the \u2018fight\u2019 you must have been having behind the scenes. Thanks for sharing this. I had no idea. With you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Loose Women panellist Charlene White said that it had \u201cbeen really difficult\u201d to see her colleagues get \u201cmade redundant\u201d amid the cuts at ITV, but that she finds it \u201cwonderful\u201d to make the show work in the midst of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you throw at Loose Women, we will make it work,\u201d she said. \u201cWe get to still be with each other, we get to still share stories, we get to make people laugh at lunchtime, we can have a few tears, but when we have those tears, we still have each other for support, and I think that\u2019s important, and I think that\u2019s an important thing for people to see. We don\u2019t agree all the time, but we do have each other\u2019s backs all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Loose Women star Carol McGiffin also commented on the show\u2019s continuing prospects<\/a>, claiming recently that the ITV stalwart should be brought to an end as it \u201cseems to be in its final throes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching now it\u2019s a sad shadow of its former self, boring, strained, unfriendly and with too many rich, whinging women going on about the menopause or their terrible lives,\u201d she continued. \u201cTime to let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-593906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}