Loose Women panelist Jane Moore has opened up about having felt "isolated" when she lost her voice for 18 months.
The admission came during a discussion on the ITV show this afternoon about communication, which began with a conversation about a video posted on social media.
It shows a young woman, who has a stammer, placing an order for a drink at a drive-through, with the footage documenting the difficulty that she faces in such situations.
This prompted the panel to discuss concern surrounding the impact of the Covid pandemic on younger children's speech, due to disruption to education but also face masks.
Amid the discussion, Kaye Adams, 59, said "communication is vital" and referenced a period some years ago when her co-star Jane, 59, had "terrible problems with [her] voice."
Jane then explained: "It was nothing like that young lady is going through but I lost my voice for 18 months." The journalist said she saw numerous specialists about it.
She added: "I just became very socially isolated." The panelist said that whilst she still has a "croaky voice" at times, that period was different as she "lost it completely."
"Just going out became impossible because you'd sit at a table and by the time you'd mustered up enough kind of energy to even get one sentence out everybody's moved on," she said.
Jane said people generally "don't like silences," with her admitting that she then ended up not contributing to conversations despite often having "so much to say."
Nadia Sawalha, 57, recalled her co-star's experience and commented that it would sometimes affect the women going out to restaurants together during the difficult period.
Do you enjoy reading about celebrities? Sign up for all the best celeb news from the Mirror here .
She commented: "[You'd] be like 'what's the restaurant like?' because you'd have to think about how noisy it was and how much of a stress it was gonna be."
Earlier in the discussion, Jane had said that lip reading can often be a part of conversations, with Frankie Bridge, 33, suggesting that many kids couldn't do that in the pandemic.
This was because in many situations, including in some educational settings, adults - such as teachers - were expected to wear face coverings, which prevent lip reading.
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV from 12.30pm. You can catch-up on previous episodes through the ITV Hub.
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@trinitymirror.com or call us direct 0207 29 33033.
