'SHOCK & FEAR'
Nadia Sawalha in tears as she breaks silence on chaos at Loose Women offices after ‘hundreds’ of shock redundancies
She revealed the fate of the Loose Women presenters
DEVASTATED Nadia Sawalha has revealed the turmoil at the Loose Women offices following "hundreds" of shock redundancies - some with just one week’s notice.
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 became emotional as she shared what's been happening, appearing alongside husband Mark Adderley on her channel.
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 is "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 too.
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 ...
"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.
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.
More than 220 jobs will be lost as part of the shake-up — almost half of the 450 employed on the four flagship shows GMB, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women.
The reshuffle comes amid a desperate cost-cutting drive at the broadcaster, and follows changes already made to its soaps.
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.
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"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...
"The entire thing has been an insult and she's certain to leave when the year-long contract ends."
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