Loose Women favourite Nadia Sawalha has opened up in raw detail about her ongoing struggle with what she calls a “horrendous” health battle — one that she admits is draining her every single day.
The 60-year-old TV personality shared her experience in her latest YouTube vlog, describing how her anxiety has become so overwhelming it is “ruining” her daily life. She revealed she is plagued by fears of developing serious illnesses, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
“I’m always worrying that I’ve got some new and dreadful disease,” she confessed. “Something will pop up on Instagram or my 17 or 21-year-old will show me something on TikTok or in a magazine, and I will just obsess.”
Comparing it to “a hot and cold running buffet,” Nadia explained she jumps from one terrifying thought to another — with dementia often at the top of her list. “I probably, and I’m not exaggerating, questioned 20 to 35 times today whether I had dementia,” she said. “There wasn’t a single interaction or transaction today where I didn’t think, ‘That was a bit weird — is that dementia?’ It’s horrendous.”
Other health fears include breast cancer and bowel cancer — conditions she says are constantly in the public eye thanks to awareness campaigns. While she acknowledges the importance of such campaigns, Nadia admitted: “I think I’m too aware. Every headline screams ‘Don’t miss the early signs,’ and everything seems like an early sign.”
Her health anxieties also extend to rare illnesses, like Weil’s disease — a bacterial infection linked to rats. “I never swim in fresh water where there are rats, but I can convince myself I have it,” she said. She also checks her skin for cancer and worries about asbestos exposure, recalling how her husband Mark once disposed of a piece found in their garden.
Nadia described the toll of living with constant fear: “It steals the joy of life. I could be having a good time with family, and then I’ll think, ‘I’m going to have that illness soon and I won’t be here.’ I can’t even talk about it with my kids because they get scared.”
The emotional video also touched on recent turbulence at ITV and Loose Women. Earlier this year, ITV announced sweeping daytime schedule changes — cutting Lorraine Kelly’s programme to 30 minutes and reducing Loose Women’s run to just 30 weeks per year. Behind the scenes, “hundreds” of redundancies and pay cuts have left staff in shock.
Nadia, who first joined Loose Women in 1999, admitted she doesn’t know how long her own future on the show will last. As a self-employed presenter, “I could be let go tomorrow,” she said.
Speaking alongside her husband on their YouTube channel, she described seeing friends and colleagues — many who have worked there for decades — left “numb with shock” over sudden job losses. Struggling to hold back tears, she said: “It’s been worse than any trolling we’ve had about the show. I just want people to be kind. What you don’t see is the army of people behind the scenes working so hard.”
She added: “It’s been brutal. I can’t bear to see so many people, who have given so much, suddenly wondering what they are going to do next.”
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/
