Nadia Sawalha in tears as she breaks silence on chaos at Loose Women offices after ‘hundreds' of shock redundancies
The Loose Women star described scenes of "shock and fear" in the corridors at ITV amid a major cost-cutting drive across its Daytime shows.
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Nadia Sawalha was in tears as she described scenes of 'shock and fear' in the corridors at ITV
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Loose Women panellists will be saved from the axe - but hundreds of staff have been left in turmoil
Credit: Rex Features
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Nadia has been a regular on Loose Women since 1999
Credit: Rex
Nadia became emotional as she shared what's been happening, appearing alongside husband
She said: "Do you know what, at the moment, all of us on screen are in work, and are proud of what we do.
"But behind the scenes there are people that are really suffering, and what you don't realise is when you attack the show you attack them, because you never see all the army of people behind the scenes and how hard they work."
Choking back tears, she added: "So to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes who have just got a huge shock out of the blue, I'm so sorry.
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"Mark knows how upset I've been at home about it.
"I just can't bear it. So just be f*****g kinder people."
A furious Nadia spoke out after The Sun columnist Jane Moore blasted "the snooty reaction from some" to the announcement of money saving cuts impacting the all-female show
Jane said the misogynistic pile-on from male presenters and other columnists as "hugely disappointing".
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She wrote: "The panellists who are under 40 are sometimes trolled as 'bimbos' or 'airheads' while the older ones like me are called 'old hags' or 'fishwives' by people who really should know better."
Nadia said she felt compelled to speak out about the reaction from inside the corridors at ITV.
ITV Daytime Shake-Up: Major Changes to Lorraine and Loose Women Revealed
She revealed: "What's been brutal, absolutely brutal over the last week. And honestly, terrifying, is that hundreds of people were made redundant and are going to be made redundant out of the blue.
"These are all the people behind the scenes, right, that support us in every way. You cannot have one without the other. But it's just the way of the world. Inflation is insane. Cuts have to be made and I know you guys will be feeling this within your families ...
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"But a lot of my friends and colleagues on this on this show ... have been there for for decades.
"And I can't tell you how upsetting it was to see people just walking around numb with shock and fear about what they were going to do.
"That has been so awful."
MORE ITV CUTS
Loose Women isn't the only show affected by these changes at ITV.
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Lorraine Kelly's show has been cut to just 30 minutes a day and will also only air for 30 weeks of the year.
Good Morning Britain, with hosts including Susanna Reid, Ed Balls and Kate Garraway, will take half an hour from Lorraine and will run from 6am to 9.30am.
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and Loose Women.
The reshuffle comes amid a
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Meanwhile, Lorraine is rumoured to quit ITV altogether next year after turning down an "insulting" offer to merge with Good Morning Britain.
A show insider revealed to the publication: "Lorraine was pulled into a meeting with bosses where she was told about Good Morning Britain being taken over by ITN ahead of the public announcement.
"It was proposed that her show would merge with GMB so that she presented the last 30 minutes of the broadcast, which is what happened when a reduced team were working during lockdown.
"But she told them no and said it wasn't even a possibility... fast-forwarded two weeks and the channel announced her show would be cut from an hour to 30 minutes...
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"The entire thing has been an insult and she's certain to leave when the year-long contract ends."
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Furious Loose Women presenter Nadia hit out at 'misogynistic trolls' who celebrated cuts to the all-female show
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Lorraine Kelly 'refused an insulting offer from ITV bosses' and is 'set to quit her show next year'
Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
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Lorraine declined the opportunity to merge her daytime show with Good Morning Britain
Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
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