Loose Women’s most controversial moments as it marks 20th anniversary

As Loose Women marks its 20th anniversary, we look back at some of the show’s most controversial moments.

Coleen Nolan and Kim Woodburn clash

The Loose Women panellist and the How Clean Is Your House? star fell out during Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.

Woodburn appeared on the show the following year in an attempt to settle their feud, but things quickly turned nasty between the pair.

She broke down as she discussed her traumatic childhood, before walking off the show and branding Nolan “lying trash”.

The clash sparked more than 3,000 complaints to regulator Ofcom, with the majority about the Loose Women panel’s treatment of the star.

Harvey Price swears on air

The show made headlines when Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey swore live on air.

Then 14, he joined his mother and the rest of a panel for a discussion on internet trolls.

When asked about people who targeted him, Harvey, who has frequently been the subject of online abuse, used the word “c***”.

Ofcom said that airing the swearword before the watershed was a breach of the broadcasting code, but it “considered the matter resolved” because steps had been taken to avoid offensive language, producers had carefully considered their duty of care to Harvey, the show is aimed at an adult audience and apologies were broadcast immediately afterwards.

Rape victim poll

There was uproar when the show Loose Women launched a poll asking whether rape was ever a woman’s fault.

The vote was criticised by viewers and help centres such as Rape Crisis, and followed comments made by Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, who told the Sunday Times that victims have to “take responsibility”.

ITV later apologised, admitting the poll was “misjudged”.

Coleen Nolan’s gay rights row

Nolan has also at the centre of controversy in 2015 after she appeared to compare the fight for gay rights with Islamic State.

The hosts of the ITV show were discussing the case in which the Christian owners of a bakery were found to have discriminated against a gay man when they refused to make a cake carrying a slogan that promoted same-sex marriage.

Coleen provoked controversy when she said on Loose Women: “If you went in somewhere and they said two days later ‘we don’t want to make your cake because of our beliefs’ you’d just never go back to that shop and tell all your friends to boycott it.

“What if somebody walked in and said ‘I want a cake with Islamic State on it and how I support it and how I support them killing our people’ and because it’s a business would they have to make that?”

Joan Rivers turns the air blue

In 2008 Joan Rivers made a notorious appearance on the show, not realising it aired live.

While discussing the actor Russell Crowe she described him as a “a piece of f**king shit”, after saying: “Get ready to bleep this.”

The panel then had to break it to her that the show is broadcast without any delay and they were unable to bleep out her bad language.

Jamelia slammed over clothes size comments

Jamelia had to apologise in 2015 after sparking controversy by saying that shops should not stock clothes for bigger women – but insisted that she stands by her remarks.

The Loose Women panellist, 34, said that she was “hounded on Twitter” after airing her views on the ITV show, in a discussion about overweight teenagers.

She later told Good Morning Britain that she was sorry for upsetting people, saying: “I didn’t make it clear on the show that I was talking about extremes, I was talking about above size 20 and below size six, those sizes being available on mass,” she said.

“Knowing that I offended people really upset me. Knowing that I made people question themselves and their choices, it really did upset me. All I can do is apologise for that.”

But the former singer added: “I do stand by what I said … I’m a real woman with real opinions. I get paid to voice my opinions.”