Andrea McLean made an emotional return to Loose Women for the first time in five years on Thursday, delivering a harrowing update on the terrifying health battle that almost cost her life.
The 56-year-old presenter, who quit the ITV show in December 2020, reunited with her former co-stars Charlene White, Coleen Nolan, Katie Piper and Jane Moore as she opened up about her dramatic new chapter living abroad.
Andrea first joined the panel back in 2007, before stepping away five years ago to focus on her business ventures. Earlier this year, she revealed she had made the life-changing decision to leave the UK and move to Spain after shutting down her business and suffering a major health scare.
During the emotional on-air reunion, Jane Moore asked Andrea to speak about her illness — and the former presenter did not hold back.
“At the very end of last year and the beginning of this year, I was hospitalised with severe pneumonia, kidney failure and sepsis,” Andrea revealed.
“It all went downhill slowly and all at once.”
She explained that she was in no condition to process what was happening — and doctors instead delivered the devastating truth to her husband, Nick Feeney.
“If we’d waited another 24 hours, I would not have made it,” she admitted.
Andrea spent three months in and out of hospital, undergoing repeated tests and intense treatment.
“I lost about 80 per cent of one of my lungs,” she said.
“Eventually I was discharged in March this year. I’m fully recovered now — there’s just a few little bits with one of my lungs — but I am alright.”
According to the NHS, sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to infection, while pneumonia is inflammation of the lungs, usually caused by infection.
Andrea also revealed the toll the illness took on her physically:
“My hair started falling out. After being so poorly and on strong antibiotics… if you look back at the old Loose Women clips, that wasn’t my hair. Technically it was mine because I bought it — but it was putting too much pressure on my real hair.”
She explained that she ultimately decided to remove her extensions entirely.
“I went to my hairdresser and said, ‘Let’s just take it all out and chop it.’”
Throughout her ordeal, Andrea said her husband Nick Feeney, whom she married in 2017, was an unshakeable source of support.
“It was very tough. We’d already been through a difficult time, and then this happened,” she said.
The couple had already weathered immense stress after Andrea left Loose Women to focus on her business, only for Covid to hit and the business to collapse.
“We were working our way back to a good place — and then I got very ill,” she said.
“We’ve been through so many tests as a couple.”
The pair recently celebrated eight years of marriage and 12 years together, with Andrea adding:
“If you can still smile at each other and think you’re still the bees’ knees after all of that, then you’re onto something good.”
Andrea’s return to Loose Women also reignited memories of her emotional exit from the show in December 2020, when she broke down in tears as she explained her reasons for stepping away.
At the time, she revealed she had suffered a nervous breakdown in 2019, which led her to question the direction of her life.
“Like so many people, this has been a time to reflect,” she told viewers.
“Do I want my life to go back to the ‘normal’ it was before? You get one life — are you being brave enough to live it the way you want?”
Becoming emotional, she said:
“Last year I had a nervous breakdown. This year, the world had a breakdown. I’ve been mentally strong during the pandemic — but I realised I wanted more.”
She added at the time:
“I’m leaving Loose Women because I want to be brave… I don’t know if I’ll fall or fly — but I’ll never know unless I try.”
Now, after surviving one of the most frightening chapters of her life, Andrea’s return to the panel came not only as a homecoming — but as a powerful reminder of how quickly life can change.
