Carol McGiffin thinks ‘Loose Women’ must have been "desperate" to hire Katie Price as a regular guest-panellist.
The 56-year-old presenter – who featured on the show’s panel for 10 years until her departure in 2013 – has lashed out at the bosses of the lunchtime show for recruiting the former glamour model earlier this year, and is convinced the new Friday line-up was only a stunt to reel in more viewers.
Speaking to Bella magazine, she said: "I don’t know what she’s [Katie’s] doing there. But she’s got a lot of Twitter followers, and they’re desperate for viewers. I can’t believe those women [panellists] are sitting with her.
"Where’s their self-respect? That’s why the show is so different, because they’re going for people with a lot of fans."
However, although Carol isn’t completely sold on the blonde bombshell, Katie’s wild outbursts and grilling interview techniques have had viewers in fits of laughter.
Meanwhile, Carol announced she was leaving the day-time panel show three years ago because she was "boring."
She said at the time: "I am sure that some of you will rejoice at this news but, I think, those who might not be so pleased deserve some sort of explanation. I’d been thinking about it for at least a year. It seems totally mad to quit one of the best jobs in the world – and it is one of the best jobs in the world – where you chat for an hour on television with like-minded women and get paid Âreasonably well for it. But I felt as if I’d completely plundered my private life and exhausted my repertoire of anecdotes to the point of boring myself."