Charlene White has paid an emotional tribute to a Loose Women colleague who has just quit the show, after she missed their on screen departure.
At the end of Last week, Charlene's Loose Women colleague Kaye Adams announced on air that a senior member of the team on the ITV lunchtime show, deputy editor Tom Sage, was leaving for pastures new; moving to Australia after landing a role on the reboot of Neighbours, following its axe from Channel 5 last year.
Charlene wasn't in the studio to see Kaye pause the show to give the panel's best wishes to Tom as he bid farewell, but made sure to address his exit on Instagram.
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Penning a heartfelt message to Tom in a post she shared with her social media followers, Charlene wrote: "Last week we bid farewell to our @loosewomen Deputy Editor @tomsage1984 … and today he flies off to Australia to join the production team at @neighbours!
"It was quite the learning curve when I first joined the Loose team 3 years ago. It was unlike any show I’d ever done, and I was nervous as anything."
Charlene continued: "But the Loose team are something special, and Tom was there for me from the start - helping to calm nerves, giving me guidance, and just generally being a wonderful friend and boss-man.
"I'm lucky he was there to hold my hand through the amazing world that is daytime telly. I can’t tell you how much we’re going to miss him."
The ITV newsreader and I'm A Celebrity star then joked about joining Tom on Neighbours, adding: "Neighbours are so lucky to have him. In the meantime, I’m gonna keep WhatsApp ’ing him storylines that feature a cute Black British newsreader character who’s slightly frazzled by the work/parenting life.
"Because I’m *totally* up for flying to Oz and ingratiating myself with Ramsay Street."
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