Carol McGiffin hits out at Loose Women bosses for 'sanitising' her opinions and claims they forced her to remove social media posts for 'upsetting the powers that be'

Carol McGiffin has hit out at Loose Women bosses for 'sanitising' her opinions as she spoke about her exit from the show. The former presenter, 66, was a fixture on the famous panel for over two decades, but left in 2023 due to 'contract issues' with bosses. Now, Carol has reflected on why she thinks the show is 'dying', how she had been told off multiple times and claimed she had been asked to remove things off social media that had 'upset the powers that be'. Appearing on Best UK's Suddenly Single podcast, Carol said: 'I don't want to be on TV anymore. 'You want to hire people with opinions, let them have opinions. It's impossible now. 'You can't do that because the people higher up are being told that this is the line that they've got to follow. Carol McGiffin has hit out at Loose Women bosses for 'sanitising' her opinions as she spoke about her exit from the show Appearing on a podcast, Carol reflected on why she thinks the show is 'dying', how she had been told off 'multiple times' and been asked to remove things off social media 'I was told off so many times. I was told to remove things from social media that I'd expressed an opinion on because it upsets the powers that be.'Whether those powers that be are the people at the top of the TV tree or they're somewhere else, and I suspect they're somewhere else, they don't like it. They don't like people having those other opinions. So you get basically sanitised.'ITV announced huge cuts to its daytime lineup last year, with Loose Women seeing its studio audience axed, while the show's episode output was reduced to just half the number of weeks of the year.Original Loose Women host Nadia Sawalha was dropped from the panel, while Denise Welch stepped down after nearly 25 years. Carol said: 'Everything is so standard. Everyone's got to have the same opinion. And it is boring. And that's why it's dying. Mainstream television is dying. Look how they've cut back on all the daytime shows on it. ' I don't think she [Denise Welch] fell out with them like I did. No, she just decided pastures new. Yeah. She just decided "that's not what I want to do anymore". 'Denise is a great actress as well and she's doing so much acting work now. I think that's why she's left Loose Women.' Carol previously opened up about the decision to leave the show back in 2023 in her weekly column for Best Magazine.Carol said: 'I haven't been on the show for two months now because I've had to step away from it. It was causing me too much stress, which was mostly down to a difficult contract issue I'd been challenging since January.'The problem was, ITV were insisting, for the first time since I went back in 2018, that if I wanted to carry on doing the show, I would have to sign a contract that was totally unjust and unworkable for me, so I had to say no thanks.'And I know it looks like I've thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health.'The Mail on Sunday later disclosed that a free speech row was at the centre of her departure, after a backlash over her tirade in an interview on TNT talk radio.She previously said on air during a TNT Radio interview for The Freeman Report, with James Freeman: '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 Women 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.'Back in May 2025, it was revealed that Lorraine and Loose Women were set to be axed for half the year and Lorraine's runtime has been slashed by 30 minutes, as ITV Daytime bosses announced huge cuts, with job losses in excess of 220.Host Lorraine Kelly has faced the brunt of the cuts with Good Morning Britain now taking her 9am to 10am slot for 22 weeks of the year.For the remaining 30 weeks of the year, Lorraine will present five days a week, meaning her Friday stand-in presenters Ranvir Singh and Christine Lampard are no longer needed.ITV sources told the Daily Mail at the time that they had decided to cut resources on their daytime schedule so that the network can invest in more drama programmes.It was also announced that ITV Studios will no longer make Good Morning Britain but instead it will be made by ITN - the organisation which makes ITV News.