Actress Denise Welch has announced she is stepping down from ITV daytime talk show Loose Women after nearly 25 years to focus on acting.
The 68-year-old former Coronation Street actress announced her decision in an Instagram video on Thursday, revealing she has been offered a string of new acting roles in recent months. Her final appearance on the long-running panel show aired on June 29.
Following the announcement, her former co-star Carol McGiffin took a sharp jab at the programme on social media while congratulating her friend. McGiffin, who previously quit the show following her own contract dispute, posted a comment directly under Welch's video statement.
"Baaaabes, can't believe you stuck it out for so long!" McGiffin wrote. "Upwards and upwards it is then. I won't see you up there but hope to see you down here sometime!"
McGiffin was one of the original panellists on Loose Women, which launched on ITV as a daytime discussion show featuring a rotating panel of female presenters. She spent an on-and-off period of 20 years on the programme, earning a reputation among viewers for her straightforward and plain-spoken style.
Carol McGiffin contract dispute
McGiffin previously stepped away from Loose Women in 2023 after being absent from the screen for two months. She detailed the reasons behind her departure in her weekly magazine column at the time, explaining that contractual disagreements with ITV had created excessive stress.
"I haven't been on the show for two months now because I've had to step away from it," McGiffin wrote in 2023. "It was causing me too much stress, which was mostly down to a difficult contract issue I'd been challenging since January."
She explained that network executives had altered their contractual demands when she attempted to negotiate her position. "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," she stated.
"And I know it looks like I've thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health," McGiffin added.
Denise Welch departure statement
Welch first joined Loose Women in 2000 and grew into one of its most recognisable faces over the next two decades. Although she took a seven-year break from the show, she returned to her seat as a regular panellist in 2018.
In her Instagram video, Welch addressed viewers directly to explain why she decided to step away from daytime television. "I'm leaving Loose Women," she said. "After best part of 25 years, off and on, I did leave for about seven years and went back in 2018. This show has been a part of me and my family's life for nearly a quarter of a century."
She emphasized that her core professional passion had always been drama and performance. "I have the most wonderful, wonderful memories and it's just that acting has always been my first love and I think the thing I'm best at, and at the moment I'm having the most wonderful opportunities coming my way," Welch explained.
"I'm grabbing them by the you know whats and running with it for this new chapter of my life," she added. "So I just wanted to say that in person to thank all of the people who have shared my stories with me, I've shared my life with you, the good, the bad and the ugly."
Addressing her public perception, Welch acknowledged her polarizing screen presence. "I'm very Marmite, but I cherish all the comments good or bad that I've had over the years and I just hope you wish me well for this new and exciting chapter in my life," she said. "I'll miss everybody but I will remain friends with the whole gang because... we are a happy band of campers. Anyway lots of love, thanks for sticking with me."
Following her statement, an official spokesperson for Loose Women issued a tribute praising her contribution to the broadcaster. "Denise has been such a brilliant part of the Loose Women family and we are going to miss her hugely on the show," the spokesperson said. "We are sending her all of our love and best wishes for her next chapter."
Acting career and television roles
Welch established her television career through prominent acting roles before becoming a chat show panellist. She achieved widespread recognition playing landlady Natalie Horrocks in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street during the late 1990s.
Her departure from Loose Women comes as she expands her acting portfolio with multiple television projects. Welch recently starred in the Channel 4 drama Tip Toe and has been cast in an upcoming adaptation of Forever Home, a novel written by Irish television presenter and author Graham Norton.
On-screen clashes and controversies
Throughout her quarter-century on Loose Women, Welch became known for her fiery debates and unfiltered opinions, which frequently generated public discussion and headlines.
Last year, Welch attracted attention during an appearance on the American talk show Watch What Happens Live on Bravo TV, where she commented on pop star Taylor Swift, who previously dated Welch's son Matty. Welch accused Swift's fanbase of attacking critics while noting that the singer frequently writes songs about her former partners.
When asked about Swift's album The Tortured Poets Department, Welch replied: "Obviously, on pain of death can I talk about that episode, but being her mother-in-law is a role that I am glad that I lost."
Within the Loose Women studio, Welch regularly engaged in heated arguments with fellow panellists, including Kaye Adams and Stacey Solomon. Her most prominent broadcast rants focused on national government policy during the pandemic, public health restrictions, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock appearing on reality show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, and the public affairs of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
In June 2021, Welch got into a furious argument with co-star Gloria Hunniford over COVID-19 rules shortly after the height of the pandemic. In another fiery exchange on the show, Welch locked horns with Kaye Adams as they debated whether citizens should continue adhering to COVID-19 restrictions after Matt Hancock was caught breaking his own guidance.
