ITV’S Loose Women tragedies — addiction, devastating deaths and cancer battles

Loose Women has been a staple on telly screens for over two decades – and the show is more popular than ever at the moment.

The ITV series first aired way back in 1999 and has entertained the nation since, thanks to the ladies sharing their honest, and sometimes hilarious, thoughts on the latest bits of news.

Stars like Stacey Solomon, Frankie Bridge and Coleen Nolan have all stepped in to co-front the show, alongside the other panellists.

READ MORE: Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash in ‘non-romantic’ phase as they rule out another baby

But despite all the laughs and giggles on the show, for some of its stars, they have faced heartbreak and tragedy in their real lives.

So with the show celebrating its 24th anniversary on Wednesday (September 6), Daily Star is taking a look at the Loose Women’s real-life tragedies.

Pattie Coldwell

Pattie Coldwell appeared on the Loose Women panel from 1999 until 2000.

She also sat on ITV’s spin-off show-re-branding attempt Live Talk.

Pattie sadly passed away in 2002 aged 50 from a brain tumour, with the journalist previously surviving breast cancer.

She was best-known for presenting consumer and current affairs TV shows including Open Air, with Eamonn Holmes, DIY show On The House and Nationwide on the BBC.

She wrote about her illness in a weekly column in the Daily Express, which she said prompted a “huge” number of letters of support from readers.

Pattie married Evan, a 29-year-old fisherman, at the start of 2002 after meeting him on a family holiday in the Caribbean island in 1998.

She had previously been married to journalist Tony Kerner for six years.

The late star, who described herself as “outspoken and confident”, also said she would be buried in the maroon dress in which she wed Evan.

Denise Welch

TV personality Denise joined the Loose Women team back in 2005, alongside panelists such as Ruth Langsford, Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha who had all starred on the show since 1999.

The actress is known for being very open when it comes to her health and fitness journey and battle with addiction.

The former Corrie actress has now been sober for 11 years, but it came after a bitter addiction battle with booze that took a huge toll on her mental health.

In fact, her alcoholism became so bad at one point that it almost led to her losing her husband.

At the beginning of her relationship with her now-husband Lincon Towneley, who was her PR manager, Denise was forced to give him an ultimatum about his drinking.

However, she then found herself facing her own battle with the bottle, revealing she turned to drink as a way to “take away the pain” as she struggled with depression.

In an excerpt from her book, called The Unwelcome Visitor: Depression and How I Survive It, she confessed she had tried to fight her loneliness with alcohol but said it left her in “a dead zone”.

The star claimed that her depression got so bad at one stage that she would hide from people on the set of Coronation Street so that she wouldn’t have to interact with others.

Carol McGiffin

Journalist Carol was a regular on the panel, making her debut back in 2000, but after 23 years on-and-off, she shocked fans in 2023 when she quit the ITV programme.

Back in 2015, Carol revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and praised the NHS staff who treated her, saying they “deserve a medal”.

Carol found a lump on her breast while on holiday in February 2014 and was diagnosed with a tumour in April.

Sadly, she had no choice but to have a mastectomy soon after, as well as six rounds of ­chemotherapy and 15 sessions of radiotherapy.

In 2019, she passed the five years to be considered in remission, and in 2022, she opened up about her decision not to get reconstructive surgery.

Carol revealed in the candid conversation on Loose Women how she would have to go through a traumatising 12-hour long operation that would leave her hospital-bound for two months as she recovered.

In the brutally honest conversation, the TV star revealed that she was forced to have a mastectomy in order to beat the deadly condition.

Lynda Bellingham

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Popular figure on TV screens for years, Lynda Bellingham was a panelist on Loose Women from 2007 until 2011.

In 2013, Lynda was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, which later metastasised to her lungs and liver, giving her “months to live”.

Despite willing herself to make one last Christmas with her family, Lynda sadly died in October 2014, with her husband Michael Pattemore by her side

Three-times married Lynda was initially very quiet about being diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, only revealing her condition to close family.

Even though she was told she wasn’t going to die by her oncologist, chemotherapy took a vicious toll on Lynda’s body, turning the end of her fingers black, preventing her from walking upstairs and requiring her to have a colostomy bag fitted.

Losing her once-powerful voice was the last straw for Lynda, who has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, and she decided to spare her family from watching her prolonged suffering.

In August 2014, she revealed she decided to stop chemotherapy in the November, but sadly she died in October that year.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk