‘MY FAMILY THINK I’M MAD!’
OLDEST CONTESTANT ANDREA MCLEAN SURPRISES HERSELF BUT FINDS HER PAST CATCHING UP WITH HER IN TOUGH CHALLENGE
Andrea Mclean is the oldest contestant ever to brave the show and admits she felt she had something to prove. ‘If I can show middle-aged women everywhere that we’re all capable of so much more, then I did this so you don’t have to!’ she told us.
The 49 year old tied the knot with businessman Nick Feeney back in 2017, and is mum to Finlay, 17, and 12-year-old Amy from her previous marriages.
Though she does her family proud on the show, the Loose Women star admits being shouted at brought back painful memories from her past. She explains: ‘It made me look things in the face that I haven’t wanted to look at for a very long time. I thought you could just put them in a box and bury them.’
Here, Andrea reveals her plans to seek help for her demons and which of her Loose Women colleagues she rates as the toughest…
Did you hit the gym to prepare for the show? I didn’t know I was going until two days before, so I hadn’t gone to the gym properly or anything. Physically, I always knew I was never going to be the strongest. How did the experience affect you emotionally? Because I work in live television, I thought, mentally, I can think on my feet. But the minute
I got there, all of that fell by the wayside, because I wasn’t ‘Andrea Mclean the presenter’, I was just me. You feel like a snail whose shell has been taken off. It made me look things in the face that I haven’t wanted to look at for a very long time. I thought you could just put them in a box and bury them and maybe blow them up! But actually that doesn’t mean they’re dealt with. Since coming home, I’m more prepared to do something about it, which is a big step forward.
Were you more or less fitter than you thought? Less! I’m the oldest person to have ever done the show and I’m really proud of that. I’m 50 this year and I thought, you set yourself limitations for how far you think you can go and you think you’ve pushed yourself really far. But it takes someone like Foxy [course instructor, Jason Fox] to keep moving those boundaries.
How did the Loose Women react when you told them you were going on the show? They thought I was completely mad. Jane Moore looked up the show on her phone. We were with Nadia Sawalha and they were both: ‘Are you seriously going to do that?’
Are your family impressed?
No, they all think I’m mad! My parents were just happy I came back in one piece.
If they did a Loose Women SAS special, who would win?
We’ve been talking. We reckon a Loose Women SAS could work really well. I think Saira [Khan] would be amazing.
What did you take from the experience?
I’m capable of so much more than I thought. If I can show middle-aged women everywhere that we’re all capable of so much more, then I did that so you don’t have to.