Emotional Loose Women star announces ‘break’ from ITV series after 13 years

Janet Street-Porter revealed she is taking a break from Loose Women as she undergoes major surgery on her hip.

The 77-year-old presenter has been a firm fixture of the daytime ITV series for over 13 years but will be off for the foreseeable future.

After quietly struggling with pain for a while, Janet is getting a hip replacement this Friday and admitted she ‘can’t think about anything else’.

‘As I’m sitting here I’m shaking and my hands are freezing cold,’ she shared. ‘I keep dreaming about it.’

Her fellow presenters rallied around the star bringing thoughtful gifts of photographs and flowers so she could have them with her while in hospital.

Janet continued: ‘I’m just going to go into hospital on Friday, have the operation on Friday afternoon, stay in hospital for a few days and then really, really work at rehab and physio so that I can come back as soon as possible.’

Praising her, fellow presenter Coleen Nolan added: ‘You always put on this tough persona and nothing bothers you.

‘And then at one point today you said “I’m really scared” and I could have cried my eyes out.’

Janet has been postponing the surgery for months, having initially been scheduled for it in March.

She recently confessed this had impacted her pain levels and forced her to ‘lie down for two days’ as she ‘really messed up the other side of my back’.

‘It’s brought home to me that I let myself get too weak and I’ve never been like this before,’ the star shared. ‘It’s so irritating.’

Waiting times for hip replacement surgeries can vary across the country, with many reporting months if not up to a year delays to get operations booked in.

The surgery itself is not lengthy, often taking a few hours with the patient up and in recovery as soon as possible.

Janet rose to fame in 1975, working as a broadcaster and journalist, before joining Loose Women in 2011.