Nadia Sawalha takes legal action against ITV after Loose Women axe: ‘Tip of the iceberg’

Nadia Sawalha has revealed that she is taking legal action against ITV after allegedly being treated unlawfully due to her ‘protected beliefs’.

The broadcaster and actress, 61, made her first appearance on the Loose Women in 1999 and was a regular until 2002.

After returning in 2013, she has regularly made weekly appearances on the ITV talk show; however, since April this year she has not featured.

Taking to Instagram today, Sawalha said in a video: ‘My legal team at ELSC has today written to ITV alleging that I have been treated unlawfully due to my protected beliefs.’

The 61-year-old went on to claim that after she began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in December 2023, she ‘became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women’.

‘Since then ITV has taken me on and off Loose Women a number of times,’ she continued.

‘I’ve mostly been told that the reason for this, and I quote, “it’s all a bit noisy out there for us”.’

Towards the end of the video, she added: ‘I want to make it clear that this is not just me that’s been targeted like this for 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.

‘Well 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.

‘No one should be bullied out of their job for following their consience and speaking out against brutal oppression.’

As well as taking legal action against ITV, Sawalha also shared a petition calling on ITV to publicly apologise to her and reinstate her if she wishes to return to Loose Women.

In the petition, the statement reads: ‘Instead of standing by Nadia, ITV has continued to keep her off Loose Women, with no indication of when, or if, she will return.

‘Nadia has spent more than two decades doing exactly what Loose Women celebrates: speaking openly, honestly and fearlessly. No one should be punished or treated unfairly at work for expressing sincerely held beliefs or speaking out against injustice.

‘Nadia is now fighting back. With the support of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), she has begun legal action against ITV, alleging discrimination because of her protected beliefs.

‘This petition stands with Nadia and sends a clear message to ITV: no one should face bullying at work for being anti-genocide.’

Metro has contacted ITV for comment.