Loose Women’s Andrea McLean returns after five years with ‘shame’ admission in health nightmare
After falling ill last year, Andrea reveals how she felt during her recovery
Andrea McLean joined her former co-stars(Image: ITV)
Former Loose Women star Andrea McLean appeared on the ITV show five years after her exit as she revealed her “shame”.
The 56-year-old, who used to sit on the ITV show’s panel, detailed how she was battling “flu-like symptoms” last December before her condition rapidly deteriorated overnight.
Speaking candidly about her experience, she shared that after a week of high temperatures, body shivers and discomfort in her chest, she spotted that her urine was a dark brown shade.
Andrea admitted: “I collapsed in the bathroom, and like the adverts you see on telly with the elderly, I lay there for an hour before my husband found me. We rang the GP who told us to call 999 immediately.”
In 2020, Andrea announced her departure from Loose Women after being a regular panellist for 13 years. At the time, she said it was her decision to leave to concentrate on her website and brand.
Sadly, her business The Girl is On Fire was dissolved in 2024 after failing to make a profit, particularly when COVID hit.
Earlier this year, she and her husband Nick Feeney began the process of relocating to Spain following a difficult year.
Appearing on Loose Women five years after her exit, she told her former co-stars: “It’s been so lovely to listen to you all… It feels like the world’s best FaceTime.”
The ITV panellists were happy to welcome her back(Image: ITV)
Discussing her reason behind moving, Andrea detailed: “I had such a horrible end to last year and start to this year where I was seriously ill… There is nothing that sharpens the mind more than when you realise this is it and I nearly didn’t have any time left.”
Andrea shared how she “spent three months in and out” of hospital having “test after test”, and revealed: “I lost about 80% of one of my lungs.”
Touching on her marriage, she admitted: “We have been through so many tests as a couple” as she shared that they recently celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary.
Andrea will also be celebrating the release of her new book, Shameless: Finding Freedom and Resilience Through Failure, in May 2026.
She shared: “I felt such shame for all the things I’d got wrong in my life… the shame of you can’t work as hard as you could because you’re ill…
“The thing that paralyses us more than anything else is feeling really bad about failure… It was to help me understand it, but also help women understand it’s not the end of the world when things go wrong.”
As the panel bid farewell to Andrea, Charlene White chimed in: “You’ve always got a large part of our hearts here!”
