Former Loose Women star Saira Khan has joined Eamonn Holmes on GB News following a “toxic” fallout with ITV bosses.
The telly personality, 53, is the latest famous face to be enticed over to the right-leaning channel.
She’s set to join former This Morning host Eamonn on his GB Breakfast show every Monday and Tuesday, according to the telly star.
Taking to his Instagram, Eamonn, who is married to ITV star Ruth Langsford, to announce his excitement at being joined by one of his “best friends”.
Alongside a snap of the pair beaming, Eamonn wrote: “Your Mon/Tues line up on GB Breakfast.
“Looking forward to hooking up with one of my best friends Saira Khan.
“We will be your presenting duo. Expect the unexpected 6 - 9.30 am.” [sic]
Eamonn joined the controversy-prone channel a year ago after co-presenting episodes of This Morning alongside his wife for 15 years.
He recently reignited his feud with ITV after making savage comments during his show, admitting that there are certain people who are “dead” to him.
As well as Eamonn, Saira joins an on-air line up which includes the likes of the Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce, Camilla Tominey from the Telegraph and polarising figure Nigel Farage, who fronts GB News’s most popular show.
Her career move come just months after she exclusively revealed the real reason she quit Loose Women to the Mirror.
The former panellist claimed bosses tried to make her join soft porn site OnlyFans as a PR stunt.
Saira told how the “shocking” request was the final straw in what she alleged were a string of desperate bids to get publicity for the ITV programme as ratings slipped.
She revealed how she was also asked to have a mould made of her vagina for a Body Stories campaign.
Saira alleged bosses cared more about viewing figures than her mental health.
Speaking about ITV culture in the wake of Jeremy Kyle and Love Island scandals following the suicides of contestants, Saira said: “The straw that broke the camel’s back was when one of the young producers was sent running after me to ask whether I would be prepared to open an OnlyFans account.” OnlyFans is a site where users post soft porn images of themselves for cash.
“To say I was shocked was an understatement,” Saira added. “I could see she herself was mortified to ask me. I replied, ‘You’re asking an Asian woman who has a husband and kids and comes from a Muslim family to open an OnlyFans account?’
“She said, ‘It’s just on your social media you’ve been posting images in your underwear and we thought if you could go undercover to see the kind of response you get from men, it would make a great story’.
“There and then, I knew my time was up on the show. I felt humiliated, angry, disappointed and like fodder.”
ITV has come under mounting pressure over the mental health of employees after a series of high-profile suicides, including that of former Love Island host Caroline Flack aged 40. And The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed in 2019 after Steve Dymond, 63, killed himself just seven days after taking part in the programme.
Mum-of-two Saira said: “The system is toxic. They do not have people who have the expertise to introduce wellbeing and mental health care.”
She said: “I love TV presenting, but I knew that for the sake of my mental health and my family, I just could not carry on in such toxic working conditions.”
She claimed that the culture of Loose Women encouraged the presenters to argue which made her “into a bitchy person I don’t want to be”. She added: “I started to realise they just wanted me to tick the box of ‘gobby Muslim woman’.”
Saira, who quit the show in 2021, claimed comments taken out of context would be packaged up and used as clickbait, and often she would have to deal with the subsequent trolling and death threats. “I was never sat down and reassured to make sure I was OK,” she said.
A spokesman for Loose Women said at the time of her claims: “We strongly refute all of these claims. Duty of care is of paramount importance for all of our panellists. Saira left the panel almost two years ago and we wish her well.”
Another former panellist also spoke out about their reasons for leaving the daytime show recently.
Jenny Powell revealed she quit Loose Women, claiming she felt "intimidated" by her fellow panellists.
The presenter, 54, who left the show in 2005 but has since appeared as a guest, hit out at the ITV daytime show as she explained her reasons for "sacking it off".
Jenny said it wasn't one happy family behind-the-scenes and there was a bad energy brewing between the panellists at the time she decided to leave the show.
The TV star was on the programme with the likes of Coleen Nolan, Carol McGiffin, Kaye Adams and Ruth Langsford in the early 2000s, but didn't give away any names when she spilled all on her time there.
"I sacked it off. I didn't like the energy behind the scenes," she said last year.
"I always felt a bit intimidated of the other women. Maybe I'm just a bit sensitive."
