Nadia Sawalha's ITV colleagues risk being dragged into her Loose Women legal row, the Mirror can reveal. The 61-year-old today revealed she had sent a pre-action legal letter to the channel accusing them of dropping her over her views on Palestine.
Legal letter alleges unfair treatment
It has emerged that her lawyers wrote to ITV claiming: “Nadia was treated less favourably than other ITV presenters who faced significant public complaints.” The European Legal Support Center (ELSC), representing Nadia, refused to comment to the Mirror about which ITV stars they were referring to or if they have been named in the letter. But they said the issue raised “serious concerns about equality in the workplace and the treatment of those who speak out for Palestinian rights.”
Speaking today Nadia grew tearful as she told how “enough is enough” and added she would not be “bullied into silence.” Along with the lawsuit, Sawalha launched a petition calling for ITV to publicly apologise and reinstate her on the panel show which has already garnered more than 20,000 signatures.
Sawalha's statement
In a video shared on Instagram, she said: "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. 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."
The panellist accused ITV of "forever changing the goalposts" and that she was removed from the programme in July 2026. She said: "They couldn't guarantee they wouldn't take me off again, as it would depend on what was said, even though I'm hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I've never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show. This is the tip of the iceberg of what's been happening."
Criticism and denial
Sawalha’s critics have accused her of promoting false claims and conspiracies about Israel and Jewish people. A group of Jewish executives also sent a letter to ITV, urging the channel not to reinstate her, citing what they called "repeated examples of conspiratorial rhetoric, inflammatory commentary, disinformation, and antisemitic discourse". Sawalha said she had not seen the letter but has denied antisemitism.
The presenter said she launched the petition with the aim of showing there are "many more people with us than against us". She added: "It's not just me that has been targeted like this from my beliefs. There are the teachers, doctors, nurses, charity and supermarket workers, and students who have also spoken according to their conscience and have suffered a similar fate as me. 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, and no-one should be bullied out of their job for following their conscience and speaking out against brutal oppression."
Legal claims and response
Her lawyers said in a statement that their pre-action letter alleges that “ITV subjected Nadia to direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment because of her protected philosophical beliefs, namely her anti-Zionist beliefs, which are protected under the Equality Act 2010.” They added: “Nadia, who has been one of Loose Women‘s most popular presenters for more than two decades, was taken off air after coordinated complaints and media pressure from Zionist groups relating to her social media posts. ITV stated that it was “not making a judgment” about Nadia’s views but confirmed that complaints and press enquiries about her posts formed the basis of its decision.” They have also “requested disclosure of the documents and complaints relied upon in ITV’s decision-making.”
Earlier in the week, Nadia vowed to tell her fans everything about why she is no longer making appearances on the Loose Women panel. Initially, she was going to release a video about it on August 5 but instead delayed to the following day. She explained that this was "due to legal reasons". When she shared a video promising to reveal why she had not been on Loose Women for months, Sawalha told a fan in the comments: "I will be telling the whole story. It's pretty unbelievable." ITV have declined to comment.
Background
Sawalha joined the ITV show in 1999 as one of the original panellists alongside Kaye Adams, Jane Moore and Karren Brady. She took a maternity break in 2002 and returned to the programme in 2013. She is also known for playing Annie Palmer on EastEnders in the late 1990s. The legal complaint comes as Loose Women has suffered massive budget cuts, with the show down to 30 weeks a year.
