Coleen Nolan was told by TV bosses she needed to get a gastric band to present a prime-time show

Presenter has been told she’s ‘too big’ and ‘too old’ to land her own show

Coleen Nolan has revealed that she was told by TV bosses to get a gastric band if she wanted to succeed on TV.

The Loose Women panelist, 55, has appeared on ITV’s daytime programming since 2000, but had set her sights on a prime-time evening show.

However, speaking at an online event (viaThe Sun), Nolan says she was told her ambition was unlikely to happen due to her age and weight.

“I have had a head of a big TV company saying, ‘If you want to get in prime-time television you should get a gastric band, you’re too big to present prime time,’” she recalled.

“I’ve had, ‘Oh, you’re getting on a bit now, so maybe you’re not right for prime time.’ And yet you see all these guys in prime time, some overweight, some certainly in their 60s and 70s.”

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Adding that there weren’t “any women of a certain age or a certain size” presenting these major shows, Nolan said that while things were improving, they were by no means equal yet.

“It’s better than it was years ago, but equally, if you look at Loose Women, there isn’t another show on any channel that has that range of women all at once presenting a TV show,” she said.

Nolan initially rose to fame in the 1970s as a member of the Irish girl group The Nolans alongside her sisters.