Katie Piper is practically bursting with excitement after landing a job on the Loose Women panel.
The TV personality took to Instagram to announce the exciting news, and told her one million followers that she’d been given a regular hosting gig on the all-female panel show.
“'It's official! I’m a @LooseWomen panellist! Thank you to everyone for your overwhelming support and kind messages about my recent appearances!” she began.
“I can't wait to become a regular and discuss some wild and wonderful things that the lovely 'loose' ladies delve in to! It’s going to be great year, and I can’t wait to take you all along for the ride,” Katie added.
The 37-year-old, who is mum to daughters Belle and Penelope, has been signed up by ITV bosses after long-standing panellists Andrea McLean and Saira Khan announced they would be departing the current affairs show.
Andrea, who made her first appearance on Loose Women in 2007, filmed her final show in December last year, while Saira announced just two weeks later that she would be leaving after five years on the panel.
The 50-year-old said the Covid-19 pandemic made her “reassess her priorities”, after revealing she had a nervous breakdown the year before.
"What I felt is that this year, collectively, the world has had a breakdown. It made me stop and think, 'What do I actually want?' You get one life, are you living it the way that you want?" Andrea explained.
"Are you doing everything that you want to do? Are you being brave? Are you taking chances? And I realised, no."
While Saira claimed she wanted to focus on her skincare brands and other projects when she revealed in January that she only “tolerated” some her fellow panellists.
"You make friends with some people, you tolerate some people, and some people you just have to do the job with.
"I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty there now. There are some friends.. people I will be close to because we get each other.
"And there are some I really don't miss at all who I was just like, "I just have to tolerate you to do the job,” she told Celebrity Skin.
Katie will join other Loose Women stars including Jane Moore, Nadia Sawalha, Coleen Nolan, and Carol McGiffin.
Other regular panellists include Stacey Solomon, Denise Welch, Janet Street-Porter, Linda Robson, and Jamelia.
Stacey has already started her maternity leave, and recently celebrated her last show with a baby shower thrown by her co-hosts.
She’s due to give birth to her and Joe Swash’s second child in eight weeks, but told her fans she was concerned her daughter would arrive early.
