Jane McDonald says ‘Loose Women’ saved her life.
The 56-year-old singer and actress appeared on the daytime talk show for the first time shortly after her split from her former husband Henrik Brixen in 2003, and has admitted the appearance – which led to her returning as a regular panelist – was the start of "10 years of therapy" for her.
Speaking on the ITV show on Wednesday (04.09.19) in celebration of 20 years on air, Jane said: "It was a terrible time, I was [still in love] and it’s a shock when you face your faults and when someone who doesn’t love you any more walks out. Everyone had followed this Cinderella story of me meeting my prince charming and then he took off.
"It saved my life really, ‘Loose Women’ has just been amazing. It has been 10 years of therapy."
Five years after her split from Henrik, the ‘Cruise’ star rekindled a teenage romance with musician Eddie Rothe, and after a rocky patch which saw them split under the strain of spending time apart, Jane says ‘Loose Women’ was able to save her relationship.
When she appeared on the show at the time, colleagues were unaware of her split and chose to do a live link to Australia to speak to him.
Reminiscing about the call, Jane added: "The day before I was on the phone to him and I thought, ‘I can’t do this again’ because we had been together 27 years prior and the same thing was happening. He was away on tour, five or six weeks and I thought this was the same problems we had before.
"So the night before that clip I was like ‘I can’t do this anymore, it’s been lovely I wish you all the best’, and then I heard the phone ringing and I thought ‘who’s ringing him at this time?’
"And I thought he’s seeing someone else. That’s it, it’s over. And it was the ‘Loose Women’ team!"
Jane says the show’s input led her and Eddie to talk through their problems, which resulted in Eddie leaving The Searchers to return to the UK to support Jane’s career, and the pair are still together now.
Jane McDonald: Loose Women saved my life
