Television presenter Olivia Attwood has candidly shared details of a significant health scare that forced her to make a sudden exit from the Loose Women panel just moments before the show was due to go on air. The 34-year-old former Love Island star was expected to join Kaye Adams, Nadia Sawalha, and Jane Moore for the live broadcast, but viewers were left puzzled when the episode began without her.
A Sudden Collapse at Work
The situation unfolded at the ITV studios, where Attwood's body finally said no after a period of pushing through illness. She later shared a photo on social media that showed a medic crouched beside her with medical equipment laid out on the floor, painting a dramatic picture of the incident. Addressing her fans directly, Olivia apologised, stating, "I'm really sorry to anyone that was expecting me to be on Loose Women today. Got to work and my body finally said no. Thank you to the team for looking after me. Back soon."
Later, via a TikTok video, the presenter revealed the specific ailments that had knocked her off her feet: a combination of strep throat and flu. In the clip, she appeared lying on her sofa in grey pyjamas, describing herself as completely defeated by the sudden illness.
The Mental Battle of Slowing Down
Attwood opened up about the psychological difficulty of being forced to rest, a challenge compounded by her self-professed personality and ADHD. "I'm the firstborn daughter, first granddaughter, Taurus. I don't listen to anyone. Apparently that includes my body," she admitted. "I just don't like being defeated. This f***** thing has defeated me."
She described being under doctor's orders to rest for 24 hours, a state she humorously referred to as "bone idle," and confessed that her "half English, half German DNA" was not coping well with being sedentary. With a crazy schedule looming the following week, she appealed to her followers for tips on how to remain stationary to facilitate a quicker recovery.
Seeking distraction, she also asked for film recommendations, specifically querying whether Frankenstein on Netflix was too sad, noting, "my heart's already broken because I had to let down my Loose Women today."
Fans Rally with Support
As the day progressed, Olivia continued to update her followers on Instagram, where she elaborated on her condition. When one fan asked how she was feeling, she provided more detail, writing, "Just so crap tbh. I have basically had a chest infection then strep throat and now some flu type thing and I just can't throw it off."
In a revealing exchange, she agreed with a follower that being ill "doesn't suit their personality" and delved deeper into her own mental barriers against slowing down. "I guess I need to unpack this more in therapy but I have such a hard mental issue with slowing down," she confessed. "Even though I practically slid off the glam chair yesterday and gave everyone a fright I still woke up this am though - wow what a f***ing waste of a day and how pathetic I had let everyone down." She concluded with the stark admission, "It's hell being my brain."
Support quickly poured in from her fans, who flooded her comments with get-well messages and a host of viewing suggestions to help her pass the time while she recuperates.
This health scare comes during a busy period for the straight-talking media personality. Earlier this year, it was announced that Olivia would be joining the hosting team on This Morning, a role she described as a huge honour. Since her rise to fame on the 2017 series of Love Island, where she reached the final with her then-boyfriend Chris Hughes, Attwood has become a household name through appearances on shows like I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, TOWIE, and by fronting her own programmes.
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
