ITV Loose Women’s Charlene White weighs in on future of show after major stars quit

News presenter Charlene White joined the Loose Women line-up in 2021. Some major stars have quit the show recently and the show has been dogged by rumours of cast feuds for years.

Charlene White has shared her thoughts on the future of ITV’s Loose Women (
Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Charlene White has addressed the future of Loose Women after years of backstage arguments and high profile stars quitting the show.

The 43-year-old newsreader joined the panel of the ITV daytime show in 2021 and is regularly seen guiding the conversation as the main host on the show. However, big stars including Lady Penny Lancaster, 52, actress Ayda Field, 44, and Carol McGiffin, 63, have sensationally quit the show in recent years.

And there have long been reports of bitter in-fighting between some of the panelists – with rumours saying many of the panelists don’t want to appear alongside 59-year-old Nadia Sawalha, and even 58-year-old Coleen Nolan herself hinting she only likes a few of her co-stars in a recent eyebrow raising interview.

But Charlene has defended Loose Women – which will celebrate 25 years on air this year. She says she likes the fact that the panel changes – and she things some of the new additions to the show will make it stronger.

Charlene joined the panel of the ITV daytime show in 2021 ( 

Opening up to Women’s Own, the TV star said: “I’ve been there three years now, and I’ve loved it.” She admits she is thrilled to recently welcome Love Island’s Olivia Attwood and model Christine McGuinness to the panel.

And she is also glad that her new personal friend, Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver, has been added to the line up of rotating panelists. The pair bonded when they both took part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022. And Charlene has credited herself for bringing 60-year-old Sue into the Loose Women fold.

She said: “When we came out of the jungle a year ago, I said to Sue, ‘I think you will fly if you join our Loose Women panel,’ and look at her now. She’s on tomorrow as a panellist and she fills in every now and then, which is incredible.”

Looking to the future, Charlene predicts a bright future for the lunchtime show. She gushed: “I feel like I work with some of the best women in the business who I learn from every single day. And what’s amazing is, we’re always inserting people to our stable, which means we’re learning so much about each other, and they’re still learning about us. I think what we do is brilliant and I’m really proud of what we do every day.”

This week, however, Coleen Nolan hinted all is not well behind the scenes of the long-running show as she hinted there are only a few panelists she can stand to be around. She asked by Best Magazine if she was “great pals” with any of her co-stars, she tellingly answered: “Some are great work colleague friends and others, even if I left the show, I’d stay in touch with.”