‘Loose Women’ panellist Janet Street-Porter has claimed the backlash she received over comments she made about Linda Robson’s appearance during yesterday’s (3 April) show triggered an anxiety attack.
Janet faced the wrath of some viewers on social media, when she commented on photos of Linda wearing a swimsuit, which were shown at the beginning of Tuesday’s (3 April) episode.
When Linda commented that the poolside pictures marked the first time she’d ever felt confident not “walking around swimming pools in sarongs covering myself up”, Janet remarked: “You look lovely, but not in that particular picture… can you give your sons a lesson in how to take a decent photo.”
She also suggested Linda should have filtered the pictures before she made them public, the ‘Birds Of A Feather’ star responded: “I’m not using Photoshop!”
A day later, and after being heavily criticised on social media, Janet addressed the comments on today’s (4 April) show, admitting that the backlash had upset her.
She explained: “On the way home [yesterday] I looked at my phone because I’d made a few jokes with Linda yesterday about her swimsuit picture, which were jokes, everybody watching, and we are close friends.
“A couple of nasty people on Twitter went on and on and on at me. I was reading and I thought, ‘Put that phone down’.”
Revealing just how bad the effects of the social media furore were, Janet added: “When I got home, I had a major anxiety attack about whether I had been too horrible to Linda. But we came out of the studio and we were really friendly, it’s just that that anxiety can even manifest itself in me.”
Earlier this week, JSP revealed that she demanded a payrise for herself and her fellow panellists last year, after feeling that they weren’t being paid enough for the work they do on the daytime show.
‘Loose Women’ airs every weekday from 12.30pm.