Nadia Sawalha Takes ‘Legal Action’ Against ITV Over Loose Women Absence

Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha is claiming that she is taking legal action against her employers at ITV.

In recent history, Nadia had been at the centre of speculation about her status as a member of Loose Women’s on-air team, with reports in the tabloid press having previously suggested she had been temporarily “dropped” due to her vocal support of Palestine on social media.

Earlier this week, the former Celebrity Big Brother housemate vowed to share her side of the story as to why she hadn’t been on Loose Women for a period of time, having last appeared on the topical panel show back in April 2026.

“I will be telling the whole story. It’s pretty unbelievable,” she teased, ahead of a more candid post on Thursday morning.

Nadia began by telling her followers: “My legal team at ELSC have today written to ITV alleging that I have been treated unlawfully due to my protected beliefs. Now, before I say anything else, I want to say how sad I am that it’s got to this, believe me. I have appealed to ITV’s hearts and minds, but to no avail.”

She continued: “After I began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in December 2023, I became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women. Since then, ITV have taken me on and off Loose Women a number of times.

“I’ve mostly been told that the reason for this was – and I quote – ‘it’s all just a bit noisy out there for us’.”

Nadia then reminded her followers: “In July 2026, after I’d been taken off air again, and Mark [Adderley, her husband] was running as a Green [party] councillor, a number of newspapers made false allegations about us, accusing us of supporting terrorism and being anti-semitic. Disgusting.

“So far, two of the papers have had to issue apologies and pay damages, and other cases are still pending. Now, around the same time, an open letter from a group of prominent pro-Israel media figures apparently sent a 20-page document to ITV urging them not to reinstate me. No one has yet paid me the courtesy of allowing me to see the letter or answer the accusations.

“ITV have continued to take me on and off Loose Women, forever changing the goalposts, whilst also saying that they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t take me off again as it would depend on what was said – even though I am hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I’d never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show.”

“This is the tip of the iceberg of what’s been happening,” she alleged, before pointing out that “this is Instagram, and I only have three minutes”, and saying that in addition to her “taking legal action against ITV”, she also wanted her supporters to sign a petition in solidarity with her.

She added: “Two years ago, a petition to get me removed from Loose Women was set up, but now I want to show there are many more people with us than against us.

“I want to make it clear, it’s not just me that’s been targeted like this for my beliefs. There are the teachers, doctors, nurses, charity and supermarket workers and students who’ve also spoken according to their conscience, and have suffered a similar fate as me. Well, enough is enough.

“We need to send a clear message to ITV, and other groups and corporations, that we won’t be scared into silence. No one should be bullied out of their job for following their conscience and speaking out against brutal oppression.”

HuffPost UK has contacted ITV for comment.

Nadia made her Loose Women debut in 1999, parting ways with the show in 2002. She then returned to the panel in 2013, and has remained part of the line-up until recent history, which has seen her becoming featured more sparingly.

Last month, she and her husband Mark Adderly received apologies from the Daily Mail and Metro news outlets after reports in which the pair were “wrongfully accused” of “celebrating” the terrorist acts of Hamas, which they said was both “unforgiveable” and had put their family “in danger”.

In their correction notes, both outlets acknowledged that Mark had not shown “support for terrorism or hatred of Jews”.

“The article also said that Mr Adderley and his wife, Ms Sawalha, run a Youtube channel, and that Ms Sawalha fully supported her husband, which may have suggested that she endorsed the statements and videos wrongly said to have been shared by him,” they said. “These allegations were false and we apologise to Mr Adderley and Ms Sawalha for the error and distress caused.”