After reflecting on a disastrous interview, Kim Woodburn has gone out swinging against ITV, demanding for a ‘full probe’ into the network.
In recent weeks, the 81-year-old TV legend hasn’t held back when criticising the turmoil surrounding This Morning following the departure of long-time anchor Phillip Schofield, as well as singling out his former colleague Holly Willoughby.
She has now stated that the new drama on the channel has ‘certainly brought back’ her sentiments from her Loose Women appearance in 2018, when she battled with Coleen Nolan, 58.
Following their stint as roommates on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, the two women had a heated argument on ITV’s lunchtime show.
Instead of the two ladies burying the hatchet, a yelling confrontation began, culminating in Kim calling Coleen “lying garbage” and a “piece of filth,” before storming off the stage in tears.
Now she has said some ITV shows ‘thrive on bullying and being unkind’.
‘The recent talk of toxicity at ITV has definitely brought back those feelings for me,’ she said.
‘I’ve been saying it all along and now I feel like I’m finally being proven right.
‘ITV needs a full investigation – some of their shows thrive on bullying and being unkind,’ she told new! magazine.
She then went on to add that she thought Schofield, 61, ‘should have been let go a long time ago’, but said ‘ITV have allowed this kind of behaviour’.
While Kim stated that she consented to go on Loose Women four years ago “with the premise that it was for a reconciliation with Coleen,” she has since claimed that she was “exploited” and that the channel should “give a higher duty of care.”
She added: ‘Loose Women assured me they wanted an interview with me to put things right after Celebrity Big Brother. Looking back now, I should have known something was wrong.’
‘ITV reassured me that it wouldn’t be a slagging match but that’s exactly what it was. Any time I’ve been on before there’s always been a live feed of the show in the dressing room – but this time there wasn’t.’
Kim went on to say that she felt “mocked and laughed at,” with no one intervening to “stop it.”
She said that after her agency questioned about the channel checking on her well-being, ITV offered Kim a consultation with their psychologist, which she declined.
Now Kim has also called on ITV to ‘provide a better duty of care’ and after she said it ‘lied’ to her ‘under false pretences for nastiness and TV ratings’.
‘I was disgusted with everything,’ she said.
Following the broadcast of that programme in 2018, Ofcom received approximately 8,000 complaints.
Many fans accused the panel of being ‘bullies,’ and Coleen later left the show after getting death threats online.
At the time, almost 25,000 people signed a petition to have her fired.
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV1.
