'Loose Women' star Saira Khan says she only speaks to four co-stars from ITV talk show - as she slams it again

Former ‘Loose Women’ star Saira Khan has hit out at the popular ITV talk show once again.

The TV personality, aged 53, who originally came to public attention almost two decades ago when she was a runner-up on BBC reality show ‘The Apprentice’ in 2005. Khan might have lost out on Alan Sugar’s £250,000 investment, but her appearance on the show launched her TV career. She joined the panel of long-running daytime show ‘Loose Women’ in 2015, but quit in 2020.

In an interview with Woman’s Own magazine, she has now spoken further about the reasons behind her choice to leave the show. She has also revealed she only speaks to four of her former colleagues, Andrea McLean, Ruth Langsford, Denise Welch and Coleen Nolan - but disputed previous claims that she had fallen out with other panellists.

She said: “I recently went out with Ruth [Langsford] to go and see Coleen [Nolan] on her solo tour in Blackpool. I keep in touch with Andrea [McLean] and Denise [Welch]. I know people think I fell out with them all, but it wasn't about the girls, it was more about me to be honest with you.”

She went on to say she felt “uncomfortable” with certain aspects of the panel programme - and that led her to make a decision to quit. She continued: 'It was more about me growing up and saying, 'look, this is what I like, and this is what I don't like,' and some of the things that go on, I was just not comfortable with it, and I think you have to be honest with it. It doesn't mean you're falling out, it just means it's not enough for me.”

Khan’s comments came after she made a comeback on another popular daytime TV show - Channel 5’s ‘Jeremy Vine’ - in March. Speaking to ‘The Sun’, about her TV return, she said: “I think it's good to have a break and I feel more confident now about who I am and who I what I want to say.”

Khan wrote about her return appearance to the weekday programme on her Instagram page, and was supported by her ‘Loose Women’ friends. Posting a series of behind-the-scenes photos, she wrote: “So after a few years off the telly, it was lovely to come back - @thejeremyvine persuaded me to do it and I'm not gonna lie . . . I really enjoyed it. So thank you @jeremyvineon5 @thejeremyvine @owenjones84 for making my first day back lots of fun. Thanks to the @jeremyvineon5 team who put the show together - all very lovely and I felt so looked after. It was good to have a little rant and let off some steam!”

Panellist Coleen Nolan commented: “Yessss about bl***y time xxx'” and Khan replied: “Ahh love you Col”.

When asked about her future on TV, Khan said to Woman’s Own: “"I wouldn’t go back to ‘Loose Women’ – I’ve done that and I think I’ve come out of it realising I want to move forward, and I want to do things that I really enjoy.

"Also, Jeremy Vine gives me space to talk about politics as well as just talking about my private life and who I am. I think people can get a bit bored of that, and the same subjects. I also like the diversity of it, and that it’s not just all females – there’s men and women, and I quite like that. It’s a bit more real life, and you can have a bit more laughter."

Shortly after announcing she was leaving ‘Loose Women’ in 2020, Khan shared a cryptic Instagram post which left fans wondering at the time what had happened behind the scenes. She posted a message that read: "I’m not going to limit myself just because they won't accept I can do something else." In the caption, she wrote: "I take a lot of inspiration from @dollyparton. I love this quote. I hope it resonates with those who need to see and hear it today."

Months after her departure, in an interview to Celebrity Skin Talk host Scott McGlynn on Instagram live, she also said: “You make friends with some people, you tolerate some people, and some people you just have to do the job with." She refused to attribute any names at the time and, when pressed, said: "I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty there now. There are some friends, people I will be close to because we get each other. And there are some I really don't miss at all, who I was just like, 'I just have to tolerate you to do the job.'"

She continued: "You have to be professional about it. You can't pretend that everyone is going to be your best friend. Especially on a show with different opinions, you're not going to tolerate everybody's opinion. That's fine. That's not a problem, just do it with respect and you have to be open minded."

She added: "Sometimes I'd go in with an opinion and someone would say something different to me and I'd think "Do you know what I never saw it from that point of view.'"