Gloria Hunniford made her return to Loose Women on Wednesday afternoon after suffering a nasty fall.
The 82-year-old hasn't appeared on the talk show for several weeks after tripping over a rug and hitting her face on a hardwood floor.
Explaining her absence to the other panellists, including Judi Love, Brenda Edwards and Jane Moore, she said she cracked a bone under her eye.
"I tripped over a rug and I took the fall totally on my face," Gloria said. "...I took it all on a very hard wooden floor, and it was all on my face. So I've cracked a bone under my eye, unfortunately.
"There's a bone around your eye that sort of holds the socket in place. And that is actually broken. So as long as it doesn't take the muscle down my eyesight at the minute is great.
The panellists went on to compliment the make-up team, including make-up artist Linda, for 'magically' covering up her bruises.
A picture of the injuries to her leg was also shown on screen.
Gloria revealed that the ambulance showed up at her son's house within 10 minutes of the fall.
"I was worried if I'm being honest," she continued. "I was worried about maybe a clot or something in the brain because a friend of mine had a similar fall and I was very relieved to know that I didn't."
Her neck was examined, as well as her eye. She said that her chest was x-rayed as she had pain there but it went away.
"...But underneath this [make-up], I am black and blue all right under here, but I'm petrified of falling again and I haven't been able to go out to shops because I didn't have Linda to do my makeup," she admitted.
The Loose Women panellists revealed that she was pulling out of the show for a short time several weeks ago.
Get all the biggest showbiz news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Showbiz newsletter.
Panellist Ruth Langsford shared the news at the start of the show on June 6, alongside fellow panellists Sophie Morgan, Denise Welch and Coleen Nolan.
As the women chatted over their highlights during the Jubilee celebrations, Ruth said: “Someone who I was very sad not to see there at the pageant yesterday was our very own Gloria Hunniford, she was supposed to be on the National Treasures bus with her great friend Sir Cliff Richard.
“She was so looking forward to it and she was supposed to be on the panel today, so thank you very much to Denise for stepping in.”
She continued: “But sadly, Gloria had a fall. She was being interviewed on the BBC on Saturday, then had a fall Saturday night and couldn’t go to the pageant.
“Absolutely devastating. She’s fine. She’s okay.”
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.
