TV

Loose Women viewers slam Nadia Sawalha for controversial remark about relationships

She was debating whether your partner should be your best friend

There’s never a dull day on Loose Women and Tuesday was no exception as a fierce debate erupted over whether your partner can also be your best friend.

And opinionated Nadia Sawalha found herself right at the centre of it!

The 52-year-old shocked viewers by insisting she thought it was wrong to consider your other half your best friend – and for a very bizarre reason.

She said: “I have best friends I want as best friends, who I tell everything to, warts and all. I’m suspicious if your partner is your best friend. I think it means you’re not having any sex.”

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Nadia also said that making your partner your best friend put too much pressure on the relationship – and used an example to get her point across.

“I have a couple of friends who aren’t married to the best of people but they’ll always say, ‘Oh, but I love them!’ I’ll say, ‘Do you like them?’ And they can’t say that.

“I think I really want to be in love with my husband and really like him: those two things are important for a relationship.

“But to make him my best friend as well is too much on one relationship. We’re asking for everything from one relationship.”

Viewers, however, firmly disagreed with Nadia and claimed they definitely thought it was possible for a partner to also be a best friend.

Well, Coleen Nolan agreed with viewers, saying: “I don’t think your partner should be your only friend, but I would say my partner or husband would definitely be my best friend.

“I’d tell him things I wouldn’t dream of telling my friends.”

Nadia quizzed Coleen on whether she’d talk to a partner or best friend about piles, suggesting you needed the two to be separate.

Coleen replied: “I agree there are certain areas [where] I don’t share everything. I don’t do the whole bathroom thing, some things are meant to be private, but I share everything else.”

She added to Nadia: “If I was your best friend, I wouldn’t want to see your piles either!”

But Nadia argued she’d ask her best friend for advice over her husband because “there’s some stuff that breaks the magic.”

Providing another take was Janet Street Porter, who said it was a “dangerous strategy” to tell your partner everything.

She said: “I have lied to all my husbands. Honesty is a very overrated virtue in marriage. There’s nothing good to be said about honesty in marriage.”

Janet added: “I’m best friends before I live with them, before the relationship. I love the best friend bit before, then when it’s all over we go back to being best friends within three months of the split.

“But when I’m with them I don’t want my partner to know too much about me. I want to be mysterious, surprising… I’m like an iceberg, one third above water, two thirds below the water line.”

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Newly-engaged Andrea McLean, however, countered: “I would say I’m very similar to you, Janet, but the person I show the rest of my iceberg to is my other half.

“I love them, I trust them. Apart from the bathroom stuff, I share everything.”

Well, it’s certainly a hot topic!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor