Janet Street-Porter has never been the kind of woman to crumble on camera. For decades, the 78-year-old broadcaster has been the loudest voice on every panel, the sharpest wit on every sofa, the woman who could cut through chaos with humour and unapologetic honesty. But even icons have limits – and this time, the battle happening behind the scenes brought her to her knees.
After quietly stepping back from Loose Women earlier this year, Janet finally revealed the truth she had tried so hard to hide: another emergency hospital stay, another major surgery, another part of her body failing her just when she thought she had survived the last hurdle. She had barely recovered from her hip replacement when doctors told her she now needed a second knee replacement – news that shattered the confidence of a woman who has always taken pride in her toughness.
She admitted privately that she had been terrified, her hands shaking even as she kept up the smile viewers know so well. “I thought I was strong… but this brought me to my knees,” she confessed. It was the rawest she had been in years. Behind the jokes, behind the glasses and the trademark no-nonsense energy, Janet had been fighting pain that she barely understood herself.
In her interview with Metro, she opened up about the frustration that has haunted her over the past year. Growing older, she said, is one thing – but losing control of her body has been something else entirely. She had been fit in her 20s and 30s, sometimes too fit, she admitted with a wry smile. “I over-exercised. I overdid it. And now my joints have worn out. I get annoyed that my body isn’t bionic.”
Her first knee replacement was already behind her. Then last year, the hip. She “sailed through” that surgery, returning to Loose Women with determination, but privately she had been mentally exhausted. “It was really depressing me. I lost weight, I wasn’t eating properly, I was completely miserable,” she revealed in a candid 2024 episode. “Sleeping was difficult, but mentally I came out better.”
This time, though, everything felt harder. The pain, the fear, the frustration. She told viewers she had recently made the difficult decision to stop the heavy-duty painkillers because they left her feeling numb and cocooned, unable to think clearly. She wanted to feel like herself again – even if that meant facing the sharp edges of recovery without a shield.
After the operation, she retreated to Whitstable, where she quietly underwent round-the-clock physiotherapy, forcing herself through exercises she admitted she “absolutely hated.” But she did them anyway. “I’m stubborn,” she laughed. “But I’ve got to do the exercises.”
Even in the midst of recovery, Janet couldn’t help but push back against stereotypes of ageing, expressing irritation at the way society talks down to older people. “Listen, if you can walk and buy a newspaper, that’s good enough,” she said bluntly, rolling her eyes at the obsession with step-counting apps
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But beneath the fire, there was something more vulnerable – a woman who was trying not to admit how frightened she had been. “I kept smiling on camera… but inside, I was terrified,” she confided.
Her fans felt that terror too. When she finally shared a hospital photo – pale, bruised, glasses still on, trying her best to look cheerful in a hospital gown – the image struck a chord with millions. This wasn’t Janet the TV powerhouse. This was Janet the woman. Janet the patient. Janet who is fighting a battle she never saw coming
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Yet even now, she r efuses to let fear change who she is. She is preparing for the next surgery with the same stubborn resolve that built her career. She is determined to walk back onto Loose Women stronger, louder, funnier, and more unfiltered than ever – because that’s who she is.
And for the first time, she has allowed the world to see the cost of that strength.
A legend fighting her own body. A woman refusing to give in.
A moment of vulnerability that reminded viewers exactly why they love her.
