Andrea McLean quit Loose Women after 13 years of presenting the daytime programme on ITV. She announced her departure in November 2020, where she said at the time you “only get one life” and made the decision to take a chance.
The 52-year-old admitted it was not an easy decision to quit the show but was determined to make a success of her business ventures.
The mum-of-two had been working behind the scenes on her platform, This Girl Is On Fire, which has since proved to be a success for the author and entrepreneur.
But just over three years ago, Andrea admitted she was not making any money from her company and the business had been “costing her”.
It was during this time the ITV favourite had been thinking about leaving Loose Women to focus solely on her new venture.
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She explained: “I’d been mulling it over for a while.
“This Girl Is On Fire is now coming up to its fourth year. I’ve been working on this for a while.
“It started off as a simple online blog which again I’ve always, always been fascinated with why we do what we do and how I can help women feel better about themselves by understanding themselves more.”
Andrea went on: “I realised I couldn’t just keep it as a free online blog. It was costing me already. I was paying journalists to write for it, I was turning down adverts and sponsors.
“It was scary because when you first start something off you don’t make any money,” she mused. “Your building and it costs money to build a business so I needed a salary.”
Andrea added: “But I couldn’t give the time to it so I had to just leap and hope that it would all fall into place. I’ve been very lucky.”
The TV star, who tied the knot with her husband Nick Feeney in 2017, decided to sell her home and invest the proceeds into herself and growing her business.
Since leaving the ITV show, Andrea has put time and money into developing the technology for her global business This Girl Is On Fire.
In addition, she had released her book to accompany the self-help platform, This Girl Is on Fire: How to Live, Learn and Thrive in a Life You Love.
The presenter has since released another book, You Just Need To Believe It, where she gives readers more insight into her various projects and living life on their own terms.
Andrea said: “I lived years of my life letting fear stop me.”
You Just Need to Believe It: 10 Ways in 10 Days to Unlock Your Courage and Reclaim Your Power is out now.
