Carol McGiffin makes dig at former Loose Women co-stars as she says she has ‘no regrets’
The outspoken star left Loose Women in April 2023
Carena Crawford
Tags: Carol McGiffin, Denise Welch, Loose Women, Ruth Langsford
Former Loose Women star Carol McGiffin left the show in 2023 and has made no bones about the reasons why. And in a new interview she has revealed what she told some of her co-stars after her exit.
Speaking to OK!, Carol, who lives with husband Mark Cassidy in the south of France said she didn’t miss the show at all.
She was a viewer favourite for her outspokenness (Credit: ITV)
Carol McGiffin on her Loose Women co-stars
The 64-year-old told the publication: “It was once a great job. It doesn’t really have many alternative opinions now. And I do watch it occasionally to remind myself that I made the right decision. I don’t regret leaving – I don’t fit in there any more. Someone, somewhere will be offended by absolutely everything.”
She went on to say: “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. I’m still very good friends with a lot of the Loose ladies though. 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.”
Carol then revealed the somewhat brutal comment she made to some fellow panellists when she left.
“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.”
During the interview Carol also revealed that although she loves Ruth Langsford, she hasn’t contacted her since following marriage split.
Carol she felt Ruth would be “inundated and won’t want to hear from me, right now”. She went on to say she will send Ruth a message when she knows “what’s really going on, not before.”
GB News got the real story behind her Loose Women departure (Credit: GB News)
Carol McGiffin quits Loose Women
Carol left Loose Women in 2023 and then admitted she had been forced to ‘step away’ from the daytime show because of a “difficult issue”. She said that she was suffering from “too much stress” due to contract negotiations.
Carol then appeared on GB News to discuss her exit. Speaking to host Dan Wootton, Carol was asked about the “general wokery” on the show. Carol 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.”
Carol then made a sad admission. She said: “It’s not a place where I feel I fit in.”
It comes after Carol discussed the reasoning behind her stepping back from the ITV programme. Speaking to Best magazine, the star said: “It was causing me too much stress, which was mostly down to a difficult contract issue I’d been challenging since January.
“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.”
Carol felt she was “forced” into leaving Credit: ITV)
What did Carol say?
She then added at the time: “It’s not really that I’ve left, I’m just not doing it at the moment. I feel quite upset about it, if I’m honest, because although it is my decision, I felt like it was one I was being forced to make.”
An ITV spokesperson said: “ITV will not comment on or disclose details of individual contracts but all ITV contracts comply with the required employment and HMRC legislation.”
A spokesperson also said recently: “ITV will not comment on speculation around individual contracts. We understand Carol has decided to leave Loose Women and we wish her well.”
