‘It’s not a place where I feel like I belong’: Carol McGiffin accuses her former Loose Women panelists of ‘shaking up the viewers’ – after quitting the show amid a free speech row
Carol McGiffin has accused her former show Loose Women of pushing liberal wake rhetoric ‘down viewers’ throats’ after ending her 20-year association with the ITV staple.
McGiffin, who first appeared on the show in 2003, recently confirmed she walked out of her role because ITV insisted she sign a contract with clauses that were ‘completely unfair and unworkable’.
As revealed exclusively by Katie Hind in the Mail On Sunday, she was also at the center of a free speech spat following backlash over her tirade in an interview on TNT talk radio.
The 62-year-old has since accused her former ITV paymasters of succumbing to the same waking sensibilities as rival broadcasters Channel 4 and the BBC – and admits she no longer watches the show.
Speaking to Dan Wootton on the Tuesday edition of GB News, she said: ‘Well, put it this way, when I read all the comments from the article over the weekend there are a lot of people who think the program has become very, very awake. ‘
Speaking out: Carol McGiffin has accused her former show Loose Women of pushing liberal wake rhetoric ‘down viewers’ throats’ after ending her 20-year association with the ITV stack
All over: McGiffin recently confirmed she walked out of her role because ITV insisted she sign a contract with clauses that were ‘completely unfair and unworkable’.
Opening: The presenter discussed her departure with GB News presenter Dan Wootton on Tuesday evening
After Wootton confessed that he’s not watching the show because of the change in tone, she added, “Well, neither am I.” The entire mainstream media is very, very awake.
‘You just don’t have to keep shoving this stuff down people’s throats, it’s not just ITV, the BBC is probably even worse – and that said, Channel 4 is probably the worst of them all. It’s not a place where I feel like I fit in.”
And while you should be having the debates and seeing a difference of opinion, in the typical waking ideals, you don’t really get it anymore, you’re not allowed to say it and if you do, you either get censored. or you will be cancelled, as many people have learned to their cost.’
Referring to ITV, she said: “They come back and say we support free speech, but I can’t see it, I can’t really see it – anyway from where I sit.”
McGiffin sparked a row with ITV after she used her TNT interview to accuse reputable mainstream news organizations of conspiring to brainwash the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering a mass mental health meltdown, after being “punished by the government was bought off’.
She added that she thought then Health Secretary Matt Hancock was trying to bring in COVID-19 patients from France at the height of the pandemic to fill “empty hospital beds” in Britain.
ITV chiefs saw a backlash against her social media diatribe, with others calling the network to demand she be sacked.
McGiffin, who was married to DJ Chris Evans from 1991 to 1998, last appeared on Loose Women on March 2, a week before her TNT Radio interview for The Freeman Report, with James Freeman.
She was a regular of Loose Women from 2000 to 2013 and then again from 2018.
But in her radio interview, she scheduled the show, one of ITV’s most popular daytime programmes, hinting that she had been censored by the bosses.
She said: ‘I always look back to the good old days when I started working in television and radio, because there were a lot less police, I think. Much less restricted and it was a freer place to be.
“When I look back at the old Loose Womens I did from 2000 until I left in 2013, they are completely different. There is so much annoyance. People take so much offense at so much and they never did before.’