Denise Welch was left 'devastated' after discovering that her former Loose Women co-star Andrea McLean had been hiding a major financial struggle. The 67-year-old TV personality had formed a close friendship with McLean during their 13 years together on the ITV show, but was kept in the dark about the debt crisis that led McLean to sell her home and cash in her pension.
Andrea McLean, 56, revealed in her new book Shameless that she and her husband Nick Freeney fell 'hundreds and hundreds of thousands' of pounds into debt after their business venture collapsed. The couple launched a blog and shopping website called This Girl Is On Fire after McLean left Loose Women in 2020, but the business folded in 2023.
McLean told the Daily Mail's You magazine that she and her husband sold their home, cashed out her pension, and even sold two engagement rings to pay off the debts. They now live in a rented property in southern Spain. Despite her close bond with Welch, McLean did not tell her about the financial turmoil until Welch received a pre-release copy of the book.
'I felt quite bad, actually, because I suppose I should have warned her,' McLean said. 'She was devastated [for me] and she was devastated as a friend that I hadn't reached out to her. But I was just trying to fix a problem.'
The couple's business initially thrived but suffered when the storefront shut down during the Covid pandemic. They pivoted to an app, but changes to Apple's App Store requirements led to its rejection in 2022. McLean then contracted long Covid, and the business folded a year later. At one point, McLean applied for a job at Starbucks but did not receive a response.
By cashing in her pension and scaling back their lifestyle, the couple managed to settle their debts in 2025. McLean said they are 'still a way off booking a holiday' but added: 'For a while, I was almost too scared to hope. But, yeah. I'm there now.'
