Janet Street-Porter suffered a fall at the Good Morning Britain studios on Tuesday morning, just weeks after undergoing knee replacement surgery. The 78-year-old broadcaster was left 'lying on the floor like a beached whale' after slipping off her chair before going on air.
Appearing alongside Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, Street-Porter explained: 'I'm alright, I managed to get up incredibly early, get myself together, get to this building. I was all ready, then I went to sit down on my chair and I fell off it! And I was lying on the floor like a beached whale.' She insisted the incident was minor, but admitted it was not her first fall since the operation.
She added: 'It was only a minor fall, I just slid sideways off my chair. Last week, my own luggage knocked me over, I came back to London after my knee replacement and I was in the basement of my flat, and as I pressed the lift thing, my wheelie bag knocked me over and I lay on the floor going 'Help me!''
The Loose Women star returned to work just three weeks after her operation and spoke of her determination to recover quickly. She said: 'I had my knee replacement four weeks ago today and I was back on Loose Women last week. Within two hours of the operation, I woke up in the hospital and thought I would go to the loo without a stick.' She confirmed she managed to do so.
Despite her rapid return, Street-Porter admitted she is still in significant pain, particularly at night. She told The Mirror: 'I'm walking around fine but at night the nerve pain is shocking. Really bad. I'm putting loads of ice on it but… you've just got to tough these things out.' She also revealed she tends to 'catastrophise' about health issues, saying: 'If anything goes wrong with my body, I absolutely catastrophise.'
Street-Porter, who was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma in 2020 and suffered from shingles, has another knee replacement scheduled for the end of the month. She stated her intention to live to 100 and maintain peak health, saying: 'My full intention is to live to be 100 and to live a very full life so anything that comes along that might impede that, I go absolutely crazy and I can't cope with it.'
