Carol and Denise’s furious feud
Carol McGiffin and Denise Welch are not happy – and they weren’t afraid to let it all out on social media…
Clearly shocked and fuming, old friends Carol McGiffin and Denise Welch have taken to Twitter to air their upset.
But Denise, 59, and Carol, 57, aren’t upset with each other – no, they are very much united in their criticism of Loose Women, the ITV chat show they were once popular panellists for – and for a considerable amount of time.
Both stars, who maintained they were never asked to appear on the anniversary show, took to Twitter to slam the programme’s producers for not giving them suitable credit, after airing its milestone 18th anniversary episode recently.
The show, which has welcomed several highprofile women to its ranks since it began in 1999, invited original panel members Jane Moore, Nadia Sawalha, Kaye Adams and The Apprentice star Karren Brady to its celebratory episode.
Denise and Carol, however, were quick to point out that producers overlooked their own long tenures in a series of video montages celebrating its top moments, with just quick glimpses of both.
They were mentioned briefly on the Friday afternoon episode, when Kaye seemingly impulsively interrupted Jane Moore, who was saying that the show had received some lovely emails from past Loose Ladies Lisa Maxwell and Vicky Pattison.
Kaye said, ‘Oh, well, listen, we can’t leave out two classics – Carol McGiffin and Denise Welch have both been in touch to say happy birthday. Two wonderful women who have done brilliantly well.’
Actress Denise, a Loose Woman for 10 years until 2013, responded to fans on Twitter, writing, ‘It was time for me to leave four years ago but sad to have been airbrushed [out] when you share your life for 10 years.’
Ouch. And Carol, outspoken at the best of times, was equally unable to mask her disgust on the site, after fans deluged her with shocked messages.
When one asked if she was making an appearance, she replied, ‘Don’t be daft, I only did 13 years and over 1,000 shows, why would I even be asked???!!!’
The best columnist, answering a fan’s puzzled question about what Carol did ‘to upset them’, also took aim at the show’s perceived dip in popularity since she left, writing, ‘Maybe it’s because we (the old gang) left and the show stopped winning awards?’
When another fan commented that Carol was nowhere to be seen in the selected clips, she retorted, ‘ You’re not the only one who noticed... it’s not like they didn’t have a lot of material to choose from! #1,174shows.’
Other fans raged that it was ‘sad’ and ‘pathetic’, while one Twitter user said of Loose Women, ‘ You have let yourself down.’ All of which begs the question –why?