Gloria Hunniford shocked her Loose Women colleagues on Monday when she returned to the show, after some time away, to reveal that members of the public thought she was 'dead,' having spotted her slumped in her car whilst she was having a snooze last week.
After a few weeks off from the ITV daytime programme, broadcasting legend Gloria was back on the panel to join colleagues like host Jane Moore, Coleen Nolan and Brenda Edwards as Loose Women kicked off another week of live broadcasts. One of the topics discussed during the hour long episode was whether the panel thought it was rude to fall asleep on someone else on public transport.
And it was then Gloria, 83, told the rather startling story of what had happened to her, during what should have been an uneventful trip to the shops on one of her days off. She explained: "Two days ago, I’m doing the driving at the minute because my husband has got a bit of an eye problem. And he’s in the shop, shopping, while I’m sitting in the air conditioning in the car with the dog, looking after it.
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"The next thing I knew, honestly, there was pounding – four people pounding on the window saying ‘Are you alight? Are you alight?!’ They thought I’d snuffed it.”
Gloria's Loose Women co-stars were gobsmacked by her tale, trying but failing to hide their laughs in, as her story also got a very vocal response from the studio audience. The former Holiday and Rip Off Britain presenter wasn't done with there either as she revealed that she then also checked with her husband on how she was sat for people to fear the worst.
After Jane asked her: "Are you a mouth sleeper?" putting her head back with her mouth wide open to gesture what she meant, Gloria replied: "My husband was coming at me from a distance with the shopping and I asked him ‘Was I lying back with my mouth wide open?’ And he said ‘No, you were sitting like this, before motioning a slump and adding :"No wonder they thought I was dead.”
Rather than being upset that members of the public made a fuss, Gloria said she appreciated the concern, ending her story: "Thank you to those people who actually woke me up. It very good when people think you are in trouble and they ask if you are alright.”
