Loose Women star gives health update after being bedbound for six months
Andrea McLean at D100 Debut, an event to mark the start of Disney's 100th anniversary celebrations
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Former Loose Women presenter, Andrea McLean, has given fans an update on her experience with long Covid and being blighted by the flu.
The Scottish journalist has gone into depth about the disconcerting and debilitating effects of long Covid, describing the recovery as “rough.”
Mclean, who was a co-presenter on the ITV daytime tv show, Loose Women, from 2007 to 2020, was bedridden for half a year but is pleased to say that she is feeling better now and starting to exercise once more.
Speaking to Bella magazine, McLean lauded having contacts in healthy places: "I've got lots of friends in the health space, so I take everything that they recommend.
McLean said: 'What I've experienced defies the definition of tired.'
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"Any vitamins of supplements that people say 'try this' I take them. I currently take a lot of vitamin D, vitamin C and so on."
McLean reflected on being “absolutely throttled” by the flu around Christmas time, and opened up about the slow and steady recovery.
She said: "I was doing everything that you're supposed to do, which was particularly unfair.
“But what I am really appreciative of is my leisure, because until you have something that is so debilitating you cannot walk the length of yourself.
McLean with current husband Nick Feeney
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"People say 'Oh I'm exhausted', but what I've experienced defies the definition of tired.
“I had no energy - it's really hard to feel energised. The simple things like going for a walk - I'd be getting further and further behind Nick, to the point where I'd have to say 'can you stop for a minute' it's things like that."
McLean then went into detail about her weight, explaining that although she had not weighed herself, she could tell she had gained weight because she could “feel il.”
McLean is married to businessman Nick Feeney, whom she met on a blind date set up by her Loose Women make-up artist.
The presenters of Loose Women collect their award fotr best Factual programme during the National Television Awards 2010, at the 02 Arena, London. L-R Andrea Mclean, Lynda Bellingham, Zoe Tyler, Carol McGiffin, Coleen Nolan, Kate Thornton, Denise Welch, Leslie Garrett, Lisa Maxwell and Jane McDonald.
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The pair were married in November 2017, after Feeney proposed to McLean in Paris in July 2017.
Previously, McLean had a 17-year relationship with BBC producer Nick Green that began as childhood sweethearts.
The couple married in Kenya in 2000 and have a son called Finlay, who they welcomed into the world in October 2021.
However, in 2004 it emerged that McLean engage in an affair with fellow Our House presenter Steve Toms.
McLean returned to her husband initially but then the pair divorced.
The former Loose Women presenter moved into Tom’s place in Surrey, where they had a daughter, Amy, in November 2006 before the couple were married in August 2009 until their separation in 2012.
McLean began life as a freelance journalist before becoming a weather presenter for GMTV from 1997 to 2008.