Loose Women star Janet Street-Porter declared "about time" after the daytime show won an overdue award, and triumphantly added: "We deserve it".
The very first episode of ITV's panel show aired in September 1999, with Kaye Adams, Nadia Sawalha, Jane Moore and Karren Brady as the first panellists on the show. Ruth Langsford appeared in the second episode and Coleen Nolan made her Loose Women debut in 2000.
Broadcaster Janet Street-Porter became a regular panellist in 2011, but after 13 years she had to depart from the show briefly to undergo and recover from a hip replacement.
At the time, she shared: "I'm having my hip replacement operation at last. And I can't think about anything else. As I'm sitting here, I'm shaking and my hands are freezing cold.
"I keep shivering. I keep dreaming about it. When they open me up, what's gonna come out? What if they can't get it back together again?"
She continued: "I'm just going to go into hospital on Friday, have the operation on Friday afternoon, staying in hospital for a few days and then go really, really work at rehab and physio, so that I can come back as soon as possible. I'll have to do one of those broadcasts from my phone hospital bed, I'm gonna see."
Despite being on air for 26 years, the ITV show has only won a handful of awards, with the last being in 2021 for the Best Daytime Programme from the Royal Television Society. This year, Janet Street-Porter, Charlene White, Kéllé Bryan and Denise Welch celebrated their "overdue" win as they took home the award for Daytime Programme once more.
In the clip posted to Instagram, Janet said: " About time. It's been so hard for this programme which is a brilliant programme, which I'm so proud to be associated with.
"It's taken so long for it to get true recognition both from other media but more importantly the television industry. We deserve it, we're grateful but we're not that grateful because we really earnt it."
Co-star Ruth Langsford who regularly leads the panel commented: "Tell 'em Janet!!" and Judi Love also wrote: "Yesssssss Congratulations @loosewomen" Writer Caroline Hirons added: "Fair play JSP! It IS about time!".
Fans were also quick to praise the women, as @sawersalikat wrote: "About time absolutely JSP love loose women watch it religiously" and @mcduffliz echoed: "You’re so right JSP! Congrats to you all."
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
