Loose Women star Andrea McLean has opened up about her health battle which forced her into giving her then-boyfriend an ultimatum, admitting the diagnosis felt like a “tsunami”

Andrea McLean is a regular on the Loose Women panel (
Image: ITV)

Loose Women panellist Andrea McLean admitted a devastating health diagnosis led her to give her then-boyfriend an ultimatum.

Andrea, 54, opened up to Giovanna Fletcher about her battle with endometriosis and how it changed her outlook on life.

The condition sees cells similar to those in the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body. Among the symptoms are difficulties in getting pregnant.

Recalling how a doctor told her “it would be a miracle if you have a baby” when she was diagnosed, Andrea told the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast: “[I felt] like I’d been punched. And I remember leaving the room in the hospital and for the first time noticing mother care. And for the first time noticing mums with rams and toddlers. And it was like this tsunami of need.”

At the time, Andrea was in an 11-year relationship with boyfriend Nick Green. She recalled returning home and waiting for him to arrive to deliver the news.

She explained: “I said, ‘if I’m going to have children, I need to start thinking about it soon because once I get into my 30s [she was 28/29 at the time] it will get harder the longer I leave it. And we’ve been together 11 years now so I think maybe we should start thinking about this.

Angela McLean with ex-husband Nick Green ( 
Image:
GETTY)

Andrea has been married to Nick Feeney since 2017 ( 
Image:
GETTY)
“And he’s like, ‘well I don’t even know if I want to marry you’. So I did what I wouldn’t necessarily recommend my own kids do and gave him an ultimatum. I said, ‘you’ve got six months to make your mind up.

“‘And I’m not going to push anybody into anything. But you’ve got six months. And if you really think this isn’t for me, then we go our separate ways. But if not, brilliant, we join hands and we do this thing’.”

The ultimatum worked with Andrea and Nick married in Kenya in 2000 before welcoming their son, Finlay, the following year. But it wasn’t easy.

“It [the marriage] started a whole rollercoaster of trying naturally for 18 months, two years, and then IVF and then eventually had my son.”

Andrea and Nick divorced in 2005, after she admitted having an affair with fellow Our House presenter Steve Toms. She had a daughter, Amy, with Steve in 2006 before the pair married in 2009. They divorced three years later.

She married her current husband Nick Feeney in 2017, having met on a blind date set up by a Loose Women make-up artist.