Charlene White couldn’t hold back the tears as she led a poignant Loose Women episode celebrating the first anniversary of their vigourous anti-domestic abuse campaign, “Facing It Together.”
During this emotive broadcast, the ITV stars opened up about their personal experiences, while also engaging with victims, in a unified attempt to shift harrowing statistics revealed by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in March 2024—indicating that 1.6 million women had suffered domestic abuse.
Monday’s (March 17) show featured Charlene alongside her fellow panellists Jane Moore, Denise Welch, and Kéllé Bryan, who all courageously delved into their past traumas.
While both Kéllé and Denise were prepared to recount their chilling experiences to viewers and those in the studio, Charlene firstly took a moment to laud her colleagues for their bravery in supporting the initiative.
Preceding Denise’s segment, Charlene expressed earnest commendation for both her peers, highlighting the profound challenge of sharing such personal stories: “One thing I do want to say about the ladies that work on this programme when they talk about their own personal experiences, it’s not easy.”, reports the Mirror.
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Charlene White couldn’t hold back the tears as she led a poignant Loose Women episode (Image: ITV)
The presenter continued to underscore the difficulty and intent behind their disclosures: “It’s quite a difficult thing to do but it is something that they want to do in order to be able to change those patterns and hopefully stop other people going through the things that they have been through.”
In a choked voice, Charlene added: “Don’t underestimate that by telling their story that it’s an easy thing for them, it’s not and it’s a really difficult thing for them to do and the women are going to be talking about their stories, here this afternoon.”
The presenter conveyed the message with deep emotion, saying: “It will again be difficult for them to talk about but I am very proud of them for doing that because we’ll never stop using out platform to talk about issues.”
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The ITV show celebrated the first anniversary of their anti-domestic abuse campaign Facing It Together (Image: ITV)
Denise courageously shared her past ordeal, revealing to the panellists: “I was in a relationship that was coercive control and not physical abuse. It was coercive and the difference is you can’t see the bruises.”
She disclosed her experience with a past partner before marrying Lincoln Townley and Tim Healy, detailing: “He started to chip chip away at my personality.”
With vivid recall, Denise described how he undermined her: “He told me ‘your friends aren’t laughing with you, they’re laughing at you’,” and recounted an incident where he flipped a table in a restaurant because she had smiled at someone.
Denise Welch shared her own experience (Image: ITV)
Kéllé, from the pop group Eternal, also displayed remarkable courage as she fought through tears to speak about several terrifying instances when she was physically restrained by the wrists.
In another segment, Jane was visibly moved to tears as she spoke about the show’s producers reaching out to the Home Office with crucial insights gathered from their dedicated campaign.
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 12.30pm