Carol McGiffin has detailed the reasons behind her departure from popular ITV daytime show, Loose Women.
The 63-year-old panellist has been a key figure on the show for the best part of 23 years, initially debuting in the year 2000.
However, a disagreement is said to have recently broken out between Carol and bosses at ITV over free speech and expression.
Read more: Loose Women's Carol McGiffin 'snubs' colleagues with 'exit' move live on air
The Mirror reports that during an interview with TNT talk radio, Carol said: "I always look back at when I started working in television and radio as the good old days because they were much less policed, I suppose. Much less restricted and it was a freer place to be.
"When I look back at the old Loose Womens I used to do from 2000 all the way until I left in 2013, they're completely different. There is so much offence. People take so much offence at so much and they never used to."
Tensions began to grow between Carol and her employer over comments she made in suggestion that the news organisation had been 'brainwashing' the public over the risks of coronavirus.
The outspoken panellist also suggested that Matt Hancock attempted to import Covid patients to the UK from France to fill empty hospital beds as the pandemic was in full swing. Earlier this month, Carol confirmed that she would be parting ways with the ITV show after a two-month absence.
Writing in her Best magazine column, she said: "I haven't been on the show for two months now because I've had to step away from it. The problem was, ITV were insisting, for the first time since I went back in 2018, that if I wanted to carry on doing the show, I would have to sign a contract that was totally unjust and unworkable for me, so I had to say no thanks.
"And I know it looks like I've thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health. It's not really that I've left, I'm just not doing it at the moment."
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