Debt was the toughest thing I've endured

FORMER LOOSE WOMEN PANELLIST ANDREA MCLEAN TALKS ABOUT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH PUBLIC SHAME

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TV presenter Andrea McLean says going into debt was a “whirling feeling of hopelessness and helplessness” - one that she dealt with secretly for a long time.

Andrea left her 13-year stint on ITV’s Loose Women in 2020, going on to found a female personal growth business called This Girl Is On Fire - but when the business failed, she and her husband Nick Feeney suffered money troubles.

“It's the toughest thing I’ve ever endured - and I'm a menopausal woman,” Andrea says.

“In the day, you're trying to stay upbeat for the kids and do all the practical things - being a mum, a parent, a wife, all of these things. You keep busy with that. But at night, when you're laying there, everything was overwhelming.”

Every night the couple would list three things they were grateful for, which Glasgow-born Andrea, 56, suggests is “easy to do when things are good” - but much harder when they're not.

The complicated feelings around her money troubles are detailed in her book, Shameless: Finding Freedom And Resilience Through Failure.

She describes the difficult period after shutting down her business - from being forced to borrow money from family members to pay bills, to applying for a job at Starbucks, and eventually deciding to sell her house in the UK and move to Spain.