Nadia Sawalha has announced she is taking legal action against Loose Women. The 61-year-old presenter used to be a regular on the ITV daytime show but hasn’t been seen behind the desk since April.
After promising for days to share her side of the story, Nadia fired several accusations at her former employer alleging she has been ‘bullied out’ of her job.
Nadia said she has been ‘messed around’ by producers who have taken her on and off the line-up after voicing pro-Palestinian beliefs.
Speaking today Nadia said ‘enough is enough’ and she would not be ‘bullied into silence.’ In a video posted to Instagram, she said: “My legal team at ELSC [European Legal Support Centre] have today written to ITV alleging that I have been treated unlawfully due to my protected beliefs. Now before I say anything else, I want to say how sad I am that it has got to this. Believe me, I have appealed to ITV’s hearts and minds but to no avail.
“So, after I began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in 2023, I became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women. And since then, ITV have taken me on and off Loose Women a number of times. I’ve mostly been told that the reason for this was, and I quote: ‘It’s all a bit noisy out there for us’.”
Nadia Sawalha announced the news on her Instagram account(Image: Nadia Sawalha/Instagram)
She went on to say: “A letter from a group of prominent pro-Israel media figures apparently sent a 20-page document to ITV, urging them not to reinstate me. No one has yet allowed me the courtesy of seeing the letter or allowing me to answer the accusations. ITV have continued to take me on and off Loose Women, continuing to change the goal posts whilst also saying they couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t take me off again as it would depend on what was said. Even though I am hired for being an opinionated women on a discussion show and I have never spoken about Palestine directly on the show.
“This is the tip of the iceberg of what has been happening, but this is Instagram and I only have three minutes. So as well as taking legal action against ITV, there is also a petition that we would love you and yours to sign. Two years ago, there was a petition to have me removed from Loose Women and I want to show there are many more people with us than against us.
“I want to be clear, it is not just me who has been targeted like this for my beliefs. There are the teachers, doctors, charity workers, supermarket workers, students who have also spoken according to their conscience and have suffered a similar fate as me. Enough is enough. We need to show ITV and other organisations that we won’t be scared into silence and no one should be bullied out of their jobs for speaking according to their conscience and speaking out against brutal oppression.”
Sources previously claimed there had been a ‘dossier’ given to ITV bosses about Nadia(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Earlier in the week, Nadia vowed to tell her fans everything about why she is no longer making appearances on the Loose Women panel. Initially, she was going to release a video about it on 5 August, but instead delayed to the following day. She explained that this was “due to legal reasons”.
Nadia, who is also known for her acting roles, was one of the original presenters when the show started in 1999. She stayed with the show until 2002 and returned 11 years later. Since then, she has been a regular fixture on the show, alongside stars such as Coleen Nolan and Kaye Adams.
When she shared a video promising to reveal why she had not been on Loose Women for months, Sawalha also told a fan in the comments: “I will be telling the whole story. It’s pretty unbelievable.”
Nadia posted to Instagram promising to share her story(Image: @nadiasawalha/Instagram)
Nadia with her husband Mark Adderley(Image: Handout)
In June, it had been reported that ITV bosses were facing a ‘civil war’ over Nadia’s position on the show, due to controversy surrounding the YouTube channel she shares with her husband, Mark Adderley. A 15-page dossier demanding she not return to the show was said to have been sent to higher-ups.
Speaking to the Sun at the time, a source said: “There is so much bad blood. Nadia has many defenders on the show but others have made it crystal clear they will flat-out refuse to work with her.”
The source claimed that she was thought to be a “loose cannon” and that some backstage were worried their own reputations will be tarnished. They continued to say the cast felt there was a double standard when it came to how Nadia had been treated: “Other stars have been hung out to dry or quietly iced out over relatively small misdemeanours, yet execs seem determined to defend Nadia.”
The Mirror contacted both ITV and Nadia’s representatives about those claims when they were reported. Nadia took to social media to deny she had been suspended from Loose Women.
The Mirror has contacted ITV about Nadia’s allegations.
