Charlene White has penned a poignant tribute to her Loose Women colleague, who is leaving the show after 15 years.
The newsreader and presenter took to Instagram to share a message for Loose Women's deputy editor Tom Sage, who departed the show last week after 15 years. Tom was mentioned by his colleagues live on air last week as he plans to start a new job abroad, departing the ITV lunchtime show after a number of years in the senior role.
Charlene revealed Tom is heading to Australia to work on Neighbours as part of the production team, as she thanked him for being a "wonderful friend and boss-man" for the three years she's been on the show.
Taking to Instagram, she wrote: "Last week we bid farewell to our @loosewomen Deputy Editor @tomsage1984 … and today he flies off to Australia to join the production team at @neighbours!
"It was quite the learning curve when I first joined the Loose team 3 years ago. It was unlike any show I’d ever done, and I was nervous as anything. But the Loose team are something special, and Tom was there for me from the start - helping to calm nerves, giving me guidance, and just generally being a wonderful friend and boss-man."
Charlene also quipped she was eager for a return Down Under to appear on the soap reboot.
She added: "I’m lucky he was there to hold my hand through the amazing world that is daytime telly. I can’t tell you how much we’re going to miss him. Neighbours are so lucky to have him. In the meantime, I’m gonna keep WhatsApp ’ing him storylines that feature a cute Black British newsreader character who’s slightly frazzled by the work/parenting life."
It comes after Kaye Adams, Judi Love, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore paused an episode of Loose Women last week to thank their colleague, and the show's deputy editor, Tom for his work.
Speaking on the ITV show, Kaye said: "Listen that's it from us for today. I hope you've had fun with us today, but it's a little bit sad for us as our dear friend and deputy editor of the show Tom is going off to a wonderful new life Down Under. We're hoping he's going to be a boomerang and come back to us, we will miss him so so much. He is a wonderful colleague and an even more wonderful friend."
Nadia then went on to say: "We will really miss him and we'll miss Mr and Mrs Sage too," before Jane added: "He's been in this building for 15 years and it's going to be weird without him, but Tom we love you."
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