One Loose Women star seemingly rubbed up 21 seconds songstress Lisa Maffia the wrong way, with the singer branding them “a rude a**hole”.
The Women of the World hitmaker has called out former ITV star Carol McGiffin, saying she was “rude” and that her relationship with a younger man “went to her head”.
Appearing on the Livin’ Lavida Loca podcast, Lisa slammed Carol in a scathing minutes-long segment.
Asked who the “worst celebrity she’s met and why”, musician Maffia replied: “Oh, I know this one. Her name is… what is her frigging name?
She’s rude you know? She was one of the original panelists on Loose Women, such an a–hole. Was her name Caroline?”
Lisa continued: “She had… she was old, short bob, grey, blondish hair. She had a young boyfriend.
So she had really short cropped sort of hair, and she went and started dating some, like, really young guy, and it kind of went to her head. I had to check her.”
The social media show’s host Lavida Loca asked Lisa if she was talking about the former ITV presenter Carol McGiffin as she replied: “Yeah. That’s it, McGriffin or Griffin, little flippin’ gruff, billy goat gruff. Nah, she was rude. I will tell you as it is, don’t try me.”
Her mention comes after Carol quashed the swirling rumours about her making a comeback to the ITV daytime staple, dismissing it as “that little job”. Fans have been clamouring for her return, lamenting that “it’s not the same without you”, yet Carol has dashed any hopes of her embarking on a third run. The telly veteran was a mainstay on the Loose Women panel from 2000 to 2013 and made a celebrated return from 2018 to 2023.
Her departure sparked controversy when she revealed feeling “forced” out. Over the last year, she’s opened up about her tough exit, expressing sadness over parting ways with colleagues like Nadia Sawalha and Denise Welch: “I feel quite upset about it, if I’m honest, because although it is my decision, I felt like it was one I was being forced to make. No one in their right mind would have signed that contract and I can’t see a way back from it.”
Despite putting an end to the comeback chatter, Carol hints she’s not hanging up her hat just yet. To her 154,000 Instagram fans, she teased that she’s not “totally retired yet”. In a nod to transparency, Carol took to Instagram to plug her very own podcast.
“Apparently, some people are missing me,” she said, adding: “Not because I haven’t been on here for ages but because I’m not on that daytime ITV show I used to do, Loose Women. Sadly that little job isn’t coming back but I’m not totally retired yet.”
Carol has been keenly promoting her podcast, telling her followers: “I’m still doing this podcast which is called ‘What’s Your Problem With Nick Abbot and Carol McGiffin? ‘ and it’s available on most podcast outlets. We’ve been doing it for over four years and quite a lot of people like it! Go on, give it a go! You might enjoy it and you might even laugh.”
In a candid chat with Best magazine last year, Carol explained her reason for leaving. She explained, “The problem was, ITV were insisting, for the first time since I went back in 2018, that if I wanted to carry on doing the show, I would have to sign a contract that was totally unjust and unworkable for me, so I had to say ‘no thanks’.”