Andrea McLean secretly suffered a breakdown last year

Andrea McLean surprised Loose Women viewers on Monday by admitting she had secretly suffered a breakdown last year.

The presenter, 50, bravely discussed her mental health battle alongside Nadia Sawalha, Brenda Edwards and Coleen Nolan as the ITV show made a return to TV screens for the first time in six weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The star confessed she had been a ‘really dark place’, but had been seeking professional help and support to help work through it.

Andrea candidly said: ‘If this [pandemic] had happened a year ago I would have been in trouble.

‘Last year, I was in a really dark place. I had a breakdown last year, which is something I haven’t necessarily spoken about, but I did.

‘If it had happened then it would have been horrendous, but I worked on myself so hard and I had so much help and so much support that actually when it happened, we’d already starting calming our life down.’

She explained: ‘I was in a really great place mentally [at the beginning of lockdown], I’d had therapy, so actually I was quite chilled.’

This is the first time Andrea has talked about her mental health battle on the show.

During Loose Women’s grand return, Andrea, Brenda and Nadia were sat far apart to maintain a two metre distance from each other, while Coleen chatted on the show via videolink from her home.

Of their return to the live format, Andrea gushed: ‘Can you believe it’s been six weeks since we’ve all been together and seen each other?’ 

Talking about how much she missed her fellow panellists, Nadia added: ‘We’ve been chatting on our WhatsApp group about how frustrating it has been that we couldn’t see each other and chat to each other about things going on.’  

Andrea explained that the show had been moved from its usual studio to the one normally reserved for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway to ensure they could record the show while safely apart.

‘It feels like we are a little beacon of light in this huge empty studio,’ she admitted.  

Coleen went on to chat from home as she detailed her intricate home studio set-up that saw her tape a camera to a step ladder that was on her kitchen table.

She explained: ‘I’ve got a step ladder on my dining table with a lap on top of it, and I’m sitting on a high stool and trying to make it look effortless.’

While the three stars in the studio remained far apart to keep to social distancing rules, Nadia admitted she was ‘really nervous’ about appearing on the show.