ANDREA McLean feared she would lose her house in a worst-case scenario as she weighed up quitting Loose Women.
The TV presenter stepped away from the lunchtime stalwart last month after 13 years to launch her new online venture, This Girl Is On Fire, with partner Nick Feeney.
And now Andrea has revealed she initially hesitated leaving the panel for fear of losing her house in a new interview with OK! Magazine.
She shared: “It was such a slow burner. By the time it came around, it felt like absolutely the right thing to do. It was a weird decision – it did feel scary!
“It took months of thinking about it. We were preparing for the worstand hoping for the best. Nick and I sat down and wrote what we needed to prepare for.
“Worst case – we would have to sell the house. Best, the This Girl Is On Fire membership and website we’ve set up works and we’re successful with that.”
The TV host broke down in floods of tears and was unable to speak as she hosted her final show last month.
The 51-year-old panellist, who has been a part of the series for 13 years, bid an emotional farewell to viewers in a special programme in her honour.
She told viewers: “Right. OK. Oh, I can’t speak. Can I just say, being on Loose Women is like a real-life soap opera. There’s highs, there’s lows.
“I’m like the landlady of the Rover’s Return, I’m just handing over my bar but I’ll be back for my Chardonnay. Oh ladies – goodbye.”
The show featured tributes from all of the Loose Women panel plus other ITV stars including Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
Andrea revealed last month that she would be stepping down from in November as she spoke about the dramatic breakdown she had suffered.
She said: “Last year I had a nervous breakdown and what I felt was this year, collectively, the world had a breakdown.
“The experience I had means that this year I was mentally really strong to deal with everything that the pandemic threw at us.”
Andrea continued: “But it made me stop and think: ‘What do I actually want?’ If there is anything that can show us you only get one life…
“Are you living it the way you want? Doing everything you want to do? Being brave and taking chances? And I realised no.”
The star then became visibly choked up as she burst into tears, saying: “I didn’t think I was going to cry, but I’ll be leaving soon.”
