Loose Women's Andrea McLean had a touching message for co-star Ruth Langsford at the start of today's (June 21) live show, following a family tragedy.
Ruth announced yesterday that her sister had died after "a very long illness", and that her "heart is completely broken". The star is also taking time off from her TV work until further notice to grieve.
Andrea explained to viewers about Ruth's situation, and gave her a message from all the cast and crew working on the show.
She said: "We just wanted to take a moment to say that all of us at Loose Women are thinking of you, Ruth, and sending you so much love to you and your family."
Andrea added "this is from us to you", before blowing a kiss to the camera.
Rylan Clark-Neal stepped in to cover for Ruth on today's This Morning, alongside her husband Eamonn Holmes.
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Eamonn said: "No-one understands more than our friend and our colleague Rylan, who has been a great comfort to Ruth and been a great help by stepping in today.
"Rylan was the first person I phoned when we heard the news. And you are a great support to Ruth on all of this."
Rylan added: "Ruth's going to need time to deal with this... I couldn't not be here today."
Several celebrities have sent messages of love to Ruth since yesterday, including Bake Off winner Candice Brown, Celebrity Big Brother's India Willoughby, and Strictly Come Dancing star Gemma Atkinson.
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
