Andrea McLean returned to Loose Women for the first time in five years on Thursday with a harrowing health update.
The 56-year-old, who quit the show back in December 2020, appeared on the ITV show to catch up with her former co-stars Charlene White, 45, Coleen Nolan, 60, Katie Piper, 42, and Jane Moore, 63, about her new life in the sunshine.
Andrea, who joined the panel in 2007, left five years ago to concentrate on her business.
Earlier this year she revealed that she was leaving the UK to move to Spain, after dissolving her business and a terrifying health scare.
Jane asked her to open up about her illness, to which Andrea explained: ‘At the very end of last year, to the beginning of this year, I actually was hospitalised with severe pneumonia, kidney failure and sepsis.
‘It all went down hill slowly and all at once. I wasn’t told, Nick was told, I was in no fit state to listen to anything…
Andrea McLean returned to Loose Women for the first time in five years on Thursday with a harrowing health update (pictured)
The 56-year-old, who quit the show back in December 2020, appeared on the ITV show to catch up with her former co-stars Charlene White, 45, Coleen Nolan, 60, Katie Piper, 42, and Jane Moore, 63, about her new life abroad
Andrea, who joined the panel in 2007, left five years ago to concentrate on her business – pictured in 2009
‘If we waited another 24 hours, I would have not have made it.
‘I spent three months in and out of hospital on a lot of strong drugs, this kind of thing. Test after test.
‘I lost about 80% of one of my lungs, eventually I was discharged in March this year, fully recovered, there’s a few little bits with one of my lungs, but I am alright.’
According to the NHS website, sepsis ‘is a life-threatening reaction to an infection’ that ‘happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body’s own tissues and organs.’
Their website also states that ‘pneumonia is inflammation of the lungs, usually caused by an infection.’
She continued: ‘My hair started falling out. After being so poorly and the strong antibiotics and everything, if you look back at the old things of me on Loose Women, that wasn’t my hair!
‘Technically it was mine because I bought it, it was putting too much pressure on my hair so I went to my hairdresser Victoria and went “Let’s just do this. Let’s take it all out and chop it”.’
The TV star also touched upon how great her husband Nick Feeney had been throughout.
The pair tied the knot in 2017.
‘It was very tough, we went through this experience already, on the back end of a really difficult time,’ she explained.
Saira Khan, Nadia Sawahla, Ruth Langsford and Andrea McLean pictured together for the Loose Women promo in 2017
‘I left Loose to go and work on my business, and ended up with Covid and the business went under.
‘We were working our way through that and get ourselves back into a good place and I ended up getting very ill.
‘We have been through so many tests as a couple.
‘We have just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. 12 years together.
‘If you can still smile and look at each other and make each other and still think we’re the bees knees, we’re onto a good thing.’
Back in December 2020, Andrea broke down in tears as she shared the news that she would be stepping away from the panel show in order to focus on other projects.
The star admitted the reason behind her departure was linked to her nervous breakdown in 2019, as she revealed it made her question whether she was ‘living the way she wanted.’
Andrea explained: ‘Like so many people this has been a time to hugely reflect and think back. So many people have been talking about how they can’t wait for life to get back to normal. I, like many people, did that and thought, ‘Do I want my life to go back to the normal that it was before?’
Andrea praised her husband Nick Feeney for his support during the difficult time (pictured together in 2019)
She told viewers: ‘Last year I had a nervous breakdown and this year the world has had a breakdown. This year I’ve been really mentally strong to deal with everything the pandemic has thrown at us.
‘You get one life, are you living it the way you want? Are you being brave? Are you doing the thing you want?
Becoming emotional, Andrea added: ‘I didn’t think I was going to cry. I’ve told you ladies just before we came on air. I’m going to be leaving Loose Women because I want to be brave…
‘All the incredible feedback that I had from my book and the support I was able to give them, I want to bring it to life. It was a really, really big decision to jump and see if I fall or if I fly. And I just thought, I will never know unless I try, so I am saying goodbye to Loose Women.’
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV1 from 12.30pm and is available to stream on ITVX.
