Saira Khan, the former Loose Women and Dancing on Ice star, has announced she is quitting television for good. The 56-year-old, who last appeared on the ITV daytime panel show in 2021 after five years, said her time on TV took a toll on her mental health.
Since leaving Loose Women, Khan competed on 2021's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, from which she withdrew on medical grounds, and made occasional appearances on Jeremy Vine. More recently, she has focused on her skincare business.
Why Saira Khan left TV
Speaking to Woman's Own magazine, Khan said: "I miss TV a lot. I really did enjoy it. But I think it came to a point where I was being pushed in a direction which didn't show who I am overall."
She added: "Everybody knows me as Saira, who's feisty, got an opinion. But I'm also a mother, I'm a governor. I do a lot of sport. I'm very passionate about my skincare business. Nobody saw that. That's why I'm really grateful for social media, because my audience sees that side of me and I'm not polarising anymore."
Khan admitted she found life in the public eye "quite stressful", explaining that "comments on your performance on TV are never filtered". She said: "It started, towards the end I think, to make me lose confidence in myself and not like myself." She questioned whether the money was worth the impact on her mental health.
Impact on family
Khan said her television career also affected her children. "If you say something and it's taken out of context and then it's circulated, people take the mickey out of your kids," she claimed. "And I just thought, 'Well, my kids never asked to be in the spotlight'." She added: "I think I had a great run for 20 years and then it was like, 'Right, we need to grow up now'."
Reflecting on her time on Loose Women, Khan said she got on well with all the panellists but has only stayed in touch with a handful. She singled out Coleen Nolan, Ruth Langsford and Denise Welch for particular praise.
Future plans
Although Khan has no plans to return to television full-time, she has not ruled out another reality show. She said her main focus remains growing her business, but admitted she would like to compete on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Strictly Come Dancing or Race Across The World.
