Loose Women viewers slammed Denise Welch during today’s show following a discussion about the death of Pope Francis.

Pope Francis died earlier today at the age of 88. He had been Pope for 13 years. His death leaves 1.4 billion Catholics in mourning.

Denise Welch on Loose Women
Denise discussed the Pope (Credit: ITV)

Loose Women discuss the death of Pope Francis

Earlier today, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had sadly passed away.

The pope had been ill for some time, however, yesterday (Sunday, April 20) he was seen blessing the crowds in the Vatican.

At the beginning of today’s Loose Women, Jane Moore, Janet Street-Porter, Mariella Frostrup, and Denise discussed his death.

Mariella said that whilst an atheist and “unmoved on a religious front”, she spoke highly of Francis and the “good” he did during his time in the role.

Janet also spoke about how his death is an “interesting moment in time” for the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis waving and smiling
The Pope died today (Credit: CoverImages.com)

‘He’s an old man who died’

Denise then weighed in.

“Echoing what Mariella said, and Janet did, to a degree. I can’t be moved by the man’s death because I’m an atheist and I didn’t know him, and he’s an old man who died. But obviously his death has affected…” she said.

At this, there were a couple of murmurs from the crowd, which Denise noticed.

“Well, he is,” she protested. “I can’t pretend I’m in mourning for the Pope.

“It means a lot to a lot of people, I’m just not a religious person, so…” she then added.

Denise Welch on Loose Women
Denise was criticised (Credit: ITV)

Loose Women fans slam Denise Welch

However, viewers weren’t impressed with Denise’s comments on today’s show, with some branding them “disrespectful”.

“Have some respect!” one fan fumed.

“What a horrible, disrespectful thing to say,” another tweeted.

“So because Denise is an atheist she couldn’t give a damn, what a [bleep],” a third said.

Denise Welch as the Pope in an AI generated picture
Denise’s bizarre picture (Credit: Instagram)
“Show some respect,” another wrote. “She really just says anything,” a fifth remarked.

Rather bizarrely, later on, Denise uploaded an AI-generated picture of herself as the Pope on her Instagram story. The AI photo was one of several of Denise doing a variety of different jobs, including being an astronaut and dressed as Superman.

“I’m having such a busy year and we’re only 4 months in!!!” she captioned the story.