Yahoo News Carol McGiffin says there's never been a 'Loose Women' panellist she didn't like
Carol McGiffin says she has never met a fellow Loose Women panellist she doesn't like, as she and Kate Thornton discussed some of their unlikely friendships to come out of the show.
Speaking on Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast, the pair sang the praises of various panellists on the show, with Thornton saying it forced her 'travel outside of her tribe to make friends' and meet women from 'different backgrounds, different cultures, different age groups'.
McGiffin said as well as Thornton, singer and actor Zoe Tyler was a great friend along with The Bill's Lisa Maxwell and journalist and presenter Kaye Adams, having appeared with all of them on the daytime panel show.
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She said: "There's not ever been a 'Loose Woman' that I could actually say I don't get on with, don't like, but some of them do end up being proper friends. These are 'friends, friends', not just because of the TV show that we did."
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She explained to Thornton that her friendship with Adams, who was one of four regular anchors on the show from its start in 1999 to 2006, was 'strange' because the pair have different opinions and 'just see the world differently'.
"We're polar opposites," she said. "We are complete and utter opposites on almost everything. And it's strange that we are friends.
"But some of the biggest, biggest, biggest arguments I've ever had on the show and off the show are with Kaye."
McGiffin lives in the south of France with her husband, who she met at a Loose Women wrap party. She said Adams had visited her in France, and that often geography plays a part in friendships, as it does with her and the 'icon' Gloria Hunniford who has a house nearby.
She said: "I really love Gloria. She's quite outspoken, as you know. And she doesn't pull any punches, doesn't suffer fools. She's her own mind. She's her own woman."
Though they're not 'hanging out with each other all the time' McGiffin said when Hunniford is in the area and they do have time, they have 'the best time'.
Thornton pointed out how Hunniford, whose TV career started in the 70s, helped pave the way for many women working in the industry today.
She said: "The only reason there's a women's toilets at Radio 2 is because Gloria joined – because she was the first woman there."
"She's just she's an icon," McGiffin agreed. "For someone so small, she's a bloody powerhouse."
The pair also reminisced about another 'Loose Woman', the late Lynda Bellingham, who died in 2014 after battling colorectal cancer.
They talked about the last time they had gone to see her for a champagne brunch, with McGiffin saying she never thought she would have been friends with her either.
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She said: "When we first met her, she was vivacious and lively and outrageous beyond belief! And then she stopped drinking and she just became like the booze police.
"And I'd say to her: 'Look, you've had your fun now shut up, let other people get on with it, don't tell people off for what you can't do!'"
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