Loose Women will again become Loose Men on Friday as part of International Men’s Day.
An all-male panel will take over the ITV daytime series on Friday, 19 November to highlight the importance of men speaking out about their mental health.
Vernon Kay will host the live special, joined by former World Cup winning rugby player Mike Tindall MBE, TV and radio presenter Ore Oduba and comedian Iain Stirling. Supermodel David Gandy will be a guest on the show too.
It will mark one year since Loose Women handed the panel over to an all-male line up for the first time in the programme’s 22-year history. International Men’s Day is a day dedicated to helping men to speak more openly about their mental health. The show will be in support of Loose Women’s Stand By Your Men campaign.
Vernon Kay said: “I’m really looking forward to anchoring the International Men’s Day ‘Loose Men’ and tackling the issues facing modern men today. From mental health to fatherhood and family, we won’t leave any taboo subject uncovered.“
Mike Tindall revealed: “I am looking forward to being on ‘Loose Men’, talking about some really important issues facing men. Being a rugby player from the north, I think I would probably have a reputation as being strong and just getting on with it, but that doesn’t always work and all of us need to talk about things. This is a great chance to do that.”
Ore Oduba explained: “I’ve been a huge fan of Loose Women for as long as I can remember… I’m so excited to be on the panel, it’ll be loads of fun. I’m really proud to be discussing the issues that affect us guys psychologically and emotionally.”
And Iain Stirling – who was on the first-ever Loose Men panel last year – said: “It’s a genuine honour to be back on the ‘Loose Men’ panel. Last time, it felt like we made something really important. The rest of the panel are legends – I’m hoping to get in their Insta stories as it will do wonders for my “engagement”, which to this day I still don’t know what that is.”
He added: “Men’s mental health is important because it affects us all and isn’t necessarily clearly visible. So, to get any sort of help you need to articulate what’s wrong. And for many that vocabulary still isn’t regularly used or available. This show can go some way to helping that.”
Loose Women’s Editor Sally Shelford said: “Last year we were bowled over by the huge response from viewers to our first ever ‘Loose Men’ to mark International Men’s Day. Hearing from some of the UK’s most-famous faces opening up about mental health, bullying and body shaming, kick-started so many important conversations. We simply had to do it again.
“This year’s amazing ‘Loose Men’ line up of Vernon, Iain, Mike and Ore promises to shine a light on even more topics affecting men today – from ageing to relationships and fatherhood, expect eye-opening conversations and lots of laughs along the way.”
Watch Loose Men tomorrow (Friday, 19 November) at 12:30PM on ITV and ITV Hub.
