Andrea McLean has told how she suffered a 'punch in the stomach' when a number of brands cut ties with her the same day she quit her highly paid ITV job as a Loose Women anchor.
The presenter, 52, took the bold move to leave the daytime chat show, where she had worked for 13 years, after a nervous breakdown and global pandemic made her re-evaluate her life.
But although she had factored in the loss of her salary as the 'breadwinner' she suffered an unexpected financial setback when the plug was pulled on cash she earned from brand endorsement deals.
Speaking on the Secure The Insecure With Johnny Seifert podcast, she said: 'When I made the announcement I was leaving TV to follow my heart and dreams, go all in on This Girl is On Fire, obviously we put a lot of planning into this moment because obviously it’s a huge jump.
"I was the breadwinner and this was the job that was paying the bills but everyone in TV does jobs as well."
The presenter revealed that she and husband Nick Feeney discussed in depth the logistics of her huge career change as she pursued her own path penning a motivational book about her experiences.
She said: 'I had enough corporate work lined up that was going to keep the funds coming in before I wrote This Girl’s On Fire and get traction so it was a calculated decision.
''On the day that I announced I was leaving, every brand dropped me... so I went from, "OK I knew I had this amount of money coming in and this much work that will see me through to the next six to eight months," it disappeared overnight.
''That’s how big a deal moving away from TV is. It was financially like a punch in the stomach, my safety net was gone. I was like, "Oh my god I only have my savings. I can't turn back and change my mind. I have no over income."
But rather than dwelling on the brands who binned her off the minute she stepped off the telly, she has chosen to take a 'glass half full' approach to losing her lucrative additional income.
She added: ''These brands, and I wont say who they were, were all about raising women up, making us feel good, but actually they didn’t care about that, only my profile.
''I passionately care about making people feel good, I realised they had missed out and it took a lot of balls to see it that way while my bank balance was going in one direction, and it was going down.''
Andrea admits that the loss of income was troubling but since leaving the show, her book This Girl is On Fire has hit the No 1. Sunday Times Best Seller list - proving her leap of faith was a positive one.
Speaking of a possible come back to LW she added: ''The door is always open to me, I appreciate that but yes it will go on definitely as a guest and chat about things 100% but not to work because I’m doing too much.''
Viewers of the show were shocked when Andrea made her announcement in November 2020, actually breaking down in tears as she described how she suffered a nervous breakdown.
She told viewers: 'Last year I had a nervous breakdown and this year the world has had a breakdown. This year I've been really mentally strong to deal with everything the pandemic has thrown at us.
'You get one life, are you living it the way you want? Are you being brave? Are you doing the thing you want?''
