The unofficial ‘queen of daytime’ said she was told her contract would not be renewed.

Lorraine Kelly has opened up about being told not to come back to her job on TV, describing the experience as “frightening”. The 65-year-old presenter, who recently underwent preventative surgery, is taking a break from her current show to recover.

In a recent episode of Dr Hilary Jones’ podcast, Lorraine opened up about a challenging period in her career when she was told not to return to work after having her daughter. She recalled: “I had just been told not to come back to work when [my daughter] was… She was born in June and I was supposed to go back to work in September.”

Lorraine explained that as a freelancer, she didn’t have the luxury of maternity leave and was expected to return to work immediately. However, just before the end of August, she received a call informing her that her contract wouldn’t be renewed, with Anthea Turner taking her place on GMTV alongside Eamonn Holmes.

Lorraine said: “I thought ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’ I had a massive mortgage, tiny baby, Steve was working all hours of the day. It was scary, it was really frightening. Anyone who loses a job knows how scary that is, especially when you’re freelance.”

Lorraine went on to say that after she got the boot from GMTV, she hit the ground running by offering a “VHS of my best bits” to various TV stations in search of a new role.

Luckily for her, GMTV got back in touch to offer her a “mum and baby slot”. It went down so well with viewers that she was eventually given her own show.

Dr Hilary shared a snippet from his recent video podcast on Instagram, saying: “Swapping seats with Lorraine. Following the news of her preventative surgery, in my latest episode of The Dr Hilary Show, I caught up with close friend and national treasure @lorrainekellysmith”.