KAYE Adams has broken her silence on the chaos at Loose Women and admitted she has had sleepless nights over the cuts to the show’s airtime.
ITV announced dramatic changes to their daytime TV schedule last month, axing more than 220 jobs and making cuts to shows including Loose Women and Lorraine.
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Speaking on her podcast How to be 60 Kaye said she felt as though ‘the rug had been pulled’ from underneath her.
Kaye, 62, confessed: “It did come out of the blue.
“I didn’t anticipate it, which is probably stupid in retrospect. You get into a sort of rhythm of life.
“I had a couple of sleepless nights I have to say, because it’s just like the rug’s been pulled from under your feet – what has been familiar.”
Under the changes, Loose Women will be slashed and will be on air for 30 instead of 52 weeks.
Lorraine Kelly’s morning show will also be cut to 30 weeks, and will reduce from an hour to 30 minutes.
Kaye, who is one of Loose Women’s main anchors, said: “It’s going to have an impact. Lots of people will lose their jobs completely which is terrible. It’s a huge change.
“But I gave myself a talking to and I listened to my own advice for once – change is hard, but it can be good.
“The past is a trap, don’t fear the future – I’m telling myself all these things. And maybe this is the nudge that I needed to make some changes in my life and I’ll just have to go with it.”
It has been rumoured that the pool of Loose Women panellists will be reduced as part of the cutbacks, which will be introduced from January.
So far none of the hosts, including big name stars Ruth Langsford, 65, Denise Welch, 67, Coleen Nolan, 60, and Nadia Sawalha, 60, know if their livelihoods are at stake.
It is not yet known whether younger panellists, such as former Love Island contestant Olivia Attwood, 34, and influencer GK Barry, 25, will be favoured over veteran stars including Janet Street-Porter, 78, and Jane Moore, 63.
Kaye, 62, who joined the Loose Women panel from its first series in 1999, said: “It’s well documented of course. They’re having to make cuts and it will affect Loose Women and to be perfectly honest we have no idea at this point what is going to happen.”
The popular presenter revealed that she has been planning to downsize from the family home she shares in Glasgow with her husband, tennis coach Ian Campbell, since their two daughters Charly, 22 and Bonnie, 18, moved out.
She said the Loose Women changes might give her the opportunity to concentrate on the move.
Speaking on the Midweek Catchup episode of How to be 60, out today, she told co-host Karen McKenzie: “I’ve been going on and on I’m going to downsize and make changes to my house.
“Maybe it’s going to give me a bit of time to focus on that and really spend some time on it.
“Funnily enough, I agreed ages ago to do this programme where they get people like me who are ready to get rid of big bits of furniture and downsize and they take them to an auction house and they sell them off and they film it.
“They asked me to earmark bits of furniture and different things that I was prepared to get rid of and so I agreed at the time, because I thought this is going to give me the impetus to really get going on the down-sizing.”
ITV’s daytime TV schedule changes in full
Good Morning Britain will be extended by 30 minutes to run from 6am to 9.30am daily.
Lorraine will run from 9.30am-10am, on a seasonal basis for 30 weeks of the year.
During the weeks Lorraine is not on air, Good Morning Britain will run from 6am to 10am.
This Morning will remain in its 10am-12.30pm slot on weekdays throughout the year.
Loose Women will be in the 12.30-1.30pm slot, again on a seasonal basis for 30 weeks of the year.
The changes will take effect from January 2026.
Kaye joked that she hadn’t yet told her husband. “They’re coming with a truck and I haven’t told Ian. For the last week I keep going to start the conversation with him – ‘by the way, there’s a film crew coming and I’ve told them that they can have that sideboard, that chair, that desk.’ I haven’t told him yet!
“But if I didn’t tell him and he came back tomorrow night, he wouldn’t notice. He might if the sofa was gone or the television, but that’s about it!”
Kaye set up the How to be 60 podcast three years ago with friend and former BBC colleague Karen McKenzie. The weekly podcast features interviews with big name guests including Alan Cumming, Michelle Collins and Shane Richie, as well as conversations about how the guests view and approach the big 6-0.
The midweek catchup episode features chat and banter between the two co-hosts as well as reflections on their lives.
Kaye, who also presents a daily show on BBC Radio Scotland, added that she was now trying to put a positive spin on the Loose Women cutbacks, rather than worry about them.
She said: “So, all change. It’s good for us. I’m going to embrace it.”
Kaye is the third Loose Women panellist to break cover and speak out about the impact of the cuts.
Last month panellist Nadia Sawalha choked back tears as she said: “What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly, I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people… are going to be made redundant out of the blue.
“These are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way.”
And Sun columnist Jane Moore hit out at the ‘snooty reaction’ to the announcement of the cuts.
Kaye Adams: How to be 60 is available on all podcast providers
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