Loose Women’s Carol McGiffin has lifted the lid on what she says was the worst part of working on the ITV talk show.(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Loose Women’s Carol McGiffin has lifted the lid on what she says was the worst part of working on the ITV talk show. The no-nonsense presenter, 65, was one of the show’s original panellists, having first appeared on the series in 2000 before she left in 2023 after she claimed she was ‘unhappy’ with her contract.

Carol, who was once married to TFI star, Chris Evans, was part of the Loose Women line-up for 20 years, on and off, and has now said that the show’s ‘strict dress’ code left her ‘exhausted’. Claiming show bosses had “ludicrous policies” for the ladies, she said: “I did Loose Women for almost 20 years and the mandated dress codes used to exhaust me.”

Carol McGiffin was one of Loose Women’s original panellists, having first appeared on the series in 2000(Image: ITV)

Speaking to Best magazine, she continued: “We went from wearing our own clothes to being bought stuff to adhere to ludicrous wardrobe policies like, ‘No arms on show,’ presumably because our ageing biceps were morphing into bingo wings, which the (male) boss at the time had decided were offensive.

“Another female (!) boss once ordered all the women to wear high heels as well. I always loathed being ‘dressed’ or ‘styled’ as they preferred to call it.”

Carol also blasted ITV for getting rid of outfits that had “mostly” only been worn once by the presenters.

She said: “You always had to be co-ordinated up to the eyeballs in nice slacks, wrap dresses or boiler suits.

“It used to make me shudder, nearly as much as the insane amount of waste on unimaginable amounts of clothes that had mostly only been worn once.”

Carol first joined Loose Women in 2000 and remained on the show until 2013, and returned in 2018. Five years later she left the panel, claiming she was left “upset” after being “forced” into the decision due to being unhappy with her contract, which she claimed was “totally unjust and unworkable”.

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Prior to Carol’s departure, a disagreement is said to have broken out between the presenter and bosses at ITV over free speech and expression.

During an interview with TNT talk radio, Carol said: “I always look back at when I started working in television and radio as the good old days because they were much less policed, I suppose. Much less restricted and it was a freer place to be.

“When I look back at the old Loose Womens I used to do from 2000 all the way until I left in 2013, they’re completely different. There is so much offence. People take so much offence at so much and they never used to.”

Tensions reportedly began to grow between Carol and her employer over comments she made in suggestion that the news organisation had been ‘brainwashing’ the public over the risks of coronavirus.

The panellist also suggested that Matt Hancock attempted to import Covid patients to the UK from France to fill empty hospital beds as the pandemic was in full swing.

In 2023, Carol confirmed that she would be parting ways with the ITV show after a two-month absence and insisted she was “upset” to leave.