Loose Women star Janet Street-Porter's health battles – struggling to walk and voice issue
The veteran TV presenter, who has often spoken of the virtues of outdoor life, has been laid low by a series of serious health problems
Loose Women star Janet Street-Porter left fans shocked after posting a video from a hospital bed at the weekend.
The TV veteran told her followers she was okay after undergoing hip surgery, saying: “I had the MRI scan, it showed no cushioning on my hip at all, they said ‘You've got to have it done quickly’.
She was glad to get the hip operation scheduled so quickly, adding: “This is exactly what it was like before my knee replacement.”
“Suddenly, you think: 'I can't go up the stairs without doing it one step at a time.’ It's affecting my voice now as well, my voice is rubbish. I've got no energy to sustain my voice.”
It’s the latest in a series of health woes for the star, who began her career as a fashion journalist before moving into radio and then onto TV.
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'Stressful' diagnosis
Janet’s inimitable voice was briefly silenced when she was laid up with shingles in 2012. Aged 66 at the time, Janet was unable to join the Loose Women team after suffering an outbreak, but says she first suffered with the illness while in her 40s.
She says she saw her doctor after noticing a rash on her body, which she at first thought was an eczema flare-up. "I was very stressed at the time and that tells you what you need to know about the workplace,” she said.
She later implored Loose Women viewers to check with their doctors to see if they were eligible of the shingles vaccine: "I would say to people at home if you're eligible in either of those categories, you're over 65 after September 1st or you're aged between 70 and 79, which I am, for goodness’ sake go and get the shingles vaccine because you certainly do not want to run the risk of getting it.”
Cancer battle
Janet warned viewers of another danger, too, after being diagnosed in 2020 with basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, and had to have surgery to remove a growth from her nose.
She initially assumed that the lump on her nose was a mosquito bite, but once a specialist told her what the problem was, paid to have the operation fast-tracked: "I was glad that I had done it,” she said, “because I could not put up with the waiting list, and the idea that I might have to wait months."
She added that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, people seemed a lot more alert to possible health problems. She went on: "At the moment, everybody wants results, and you can’t really blame them. They’ve been through Covid. And when I was diagnosed,…this thing on my face isn’t just any old spot. It’s a basal cell carcinoma. I wanted it got rid of.”
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Following that health scare, Janet again urged Loose Women viewers to look after their own bodies: “I want to say to everybody watching, do look at all the little blemishes on your skin and especially moles if they change size or shape or anything,” she warned.
“I always did, I was always really careful, I always put factor 50 on my face. It can happen to so many people.”
Struggling to walk
Now Janet, the former president of the Ramblers' Association, has explained on Loose Women how her “mobility gets worse” every day, forcing her to take a leave of absence offer the hit ITV show after 13 years on screen.
She now uses a walking frame and spoke of her recent hip problems: "You look at the way you're walking, you're turning in on yourself."
