Presenter and author Andrea McLean, 52, on leaving Loose Women and how appearing on SAS: Who Dares Wins changed her life.
Was it a huge decision to leave Loose Women?
When I announced I was leaving, I felt scared.
I wanted to do something for my website community, This Girl Is On Fire, because they’d just joined but I was putting down train tracks with the train coming behind me.
I came up with a challenge for about 200 women over a private Facebook group, designed to get them out of their comfort zone. Some results were instant and others happened a few months later, and that’s become my new book.
What changes have people made after reading it?
Some felt brave enough to speak up at work. Some women became agoraphobic due to the pandemic so they started being brave by going to the shops. It doesn’t have to be huge but if it makes you feel powerful, that’s a win.
Does it really take 10 days to be able to change your mindset?
Those 10 days flick the switch and are a catalyst for change. Obviously, you need to keep going with it.
In five days nothing’s really going to happen and seven days is ok but 10 days is enough of a commitment that you need to do this.
After about a month you start to see changes and your habits aren’t forced.
Do you feel more yourself now?
I’m lucky in that I was always me. When I was on TV, I was always the quietest spoken and I have always been very empathetic, kind and caring.
If someone new was on the panel, I’d always have them sit next to me so I could be there for them. Now I do that with every part of my work and I’ve always been really fascinated by human behaviour.
I spend my days interviewing Olympic coaches, mindset coaches and neurosurgeons so I’m living my best life talking to fascinating people.
I trained to be a life coach because I’m leading masterclasses and doing live sessions with the women in the community, and I wanted to make sure I was doing it properly.
The biggest misconception people might have is that I’ve left TV and become this person who knows everything. I don’t. But I know someone who does it and if I don’t, I’ll look into it.
You’ve been through a lot: two divorces, becoming a mum and stepmum, and a breakdown. Does that give you wisdom?
It’s not that I’m some holier-than-thou woman saying, ‘This is what you need to do to have an amazing life.’ I’m a 52-year-old woman who has fallen off the bike many times. Life is bumpy and I’ve been bumped.
I’ve experienced many of the things the women I’m speaking to are experiencing themselves, so there’s empathy there. Whether it’s the menopause because I had a hysterectomy, failed relationships… I’ve been through it and like to help.
You said doing SAS: Who Dares Wins changed the course of your life…
It did. It was the best thing I ever did. It was a perfect storm – everything that needed to happen did, in exactly the right order.
It made me address stuff from my past that I was carrying around and I would have probably kept going with that, like 90% of us do.
It was like the box opened and all the bats came out and I couldn’t get them back in. It made me stop and let them all go.
Other TV presenters, such as Fearne Cotton and Amanda Byram, are doing self-help stuff too. Why is that?
It probably happens to many people but they’re just not in the public eye.
All those people, and Anna Williamson as well, were doing a job in TV that we totally love but if you put us all in a room, we’re probably all very similar people – empathetic, sensitive, caring and kind interviewers who are interested in people’s stories rather than wanting to get a top line.
Do you stay in touch with the other Loose Women?
Not everybody but that’s the same as anyone who works in an office.
Even when I was there, we didn’t really go out very often because we live all over the country but there’s texting and messaging, and it was so good to go back on as a guest recently.
Are you planning to write more books?
Writing is my first love and why I moved to London to go to journalism college.
I misread a job advert that turned out to be working as a weather presenter for the Weather Channel.
I ignored the ‘onscreen presence’ bit and certainly didn’t have a showreel. But I got it. From there I went to GMTV in 1996 and left in 2020 so I finally feel like I’m back doing what I originally wanted to do.
The next book is going to be with my husband because in the second half of this year we’re launching This Guy Is On Fire to run alongside This Girl Is On Fire.
There are a few things I may be doing on TV later on this year too.
McLean is CEO of membership group This Girl Is On Fire. Her book You Just Need To Believe It: 10 Ways In 10 Days To Unlock Your Courage And Reclaim Your Power (Hay House) is out now.
