Loose Women's Andrea McLean divorce from second husband - The ladies of ITV's daytime chat show Loose Women have a new subject to bond over, but it's not something they would ever have wanted to share. Andrea McLean, a former weather girl who has hosted the show since 2008, announced today that she has split from her husband, Steve Toms.
"I'm still in shock. When I hear myself talking about 'my first marriage breakdown' then 'this time round', the words are like a stab in the heart," she told The Mirror.
"I feel I have let my children down. They don't deserve this. I just wanted to give them what I had - a happy, loving home with a mum and dad who adored each other. And all I've ever wanted is to be one half of a couple. But now that's all gone. I'm heartbroken.
"I hated myself for a long time because of [the affair]. Then, six years later when Steve and I finally got married, I went into it with a heart full of love and hope - determined this would be different.
"But as time went by and I realised I couldn't make this marriage work either, I felt utter panic. I feel completely destroyed by it all."
McLean said that she had accepted after the split that "life comes with bumps and grazes", thanks to the support she received from her Loose Women co-star Sherrie Hewson.
"On my first show of the New Year, the topic was, 'Why do marriages break down at Christmas'," she recalled. "I just wanted to burst out crying, but somehow I got through.
"I'd kept my marriage problems to myself and only Sherrie Hewson saw through my brave face... She said, 'You're young, beautiful and a lovely person and you deserve to be happy - so if you're not happy about anything in your life, please don't wait'.
"I really thought about what she said. It reinforced what I knew deep down. I had to move on."
McLean declared while stripping off for a magazine shoot in November that she was going to "throw caution to the wind" from now on in her life.
Andrea revealed that the couple decided to separate over Christmas, after attempts to stay together for the sake of their five-year-old daughter Amy and McLean's ten-year-old son Finlay. Andrea McLean's relationship with Steve was originally controversial as the couple had an affair while Andrea was still married to her first husband, TV producer Nick Green. McLean and Toms met while they were joint hosts of a home makeover show called Our House. After Andrea divorced Nick, she moved in with Steve and they married in 2009 after six years together.
Andrea McLean has said she is "heartbroken" by the failure of her second marriage, and feels she has let her children down. But she won't have to go through the divorce proceedings alone, as she'll undoubtedly have the support of her Loose Women colleagues, particularly Carol Vorderman and Sherrie Hewson, who both separated from their partners in 2011.
