I was warned my career would be over after taking drugs on controversial TV show, says Loose Women’s Linda Robson
LINDA Robson was warned her 50 year showbiz career would end after signing up for a controversial TV show, she has revealed.
The Loose Women star, 65, was one of five celebrities who toured America in a psychedelic bus to explore cannabis use as part of ITV’s 2018 series Gone to Pot.
The group – Linda, Pam St Clement, Christopher Biggins, John Fashanu and Bobby George – had their fair share of marijuana in various forms on the tour, which culminated in them wanting cannabis legalised in the UK.
The series ended up being a smash hit with critics and viewers alike, who loved seeing the unlikely quintet let loose on the road trip.
But it’s success wasn’t always a certainty.
Linda was warned by her own agent that she could be committing career suicide by taking part.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Linda explained: “My agent thought it was [risky] when I was asked to do Gone To Pot. She said ‘I don’t think you should do it. You’re a daytime face on television, you’ll probably never work again’. But I said, ‘The series I’m doing is for ITV, I do most of my work for ITV anyway, so I don’t see how it can hurt in any way’.”
Fortunately, Linda’s three grown-up children disagreed.
She continued: “I asked the kids as well. I said, ‘I’ve been asked to do a programme called Gone To Pot where I travel around America in a psychedelic bus and I’m going to be taking cannabis. What do you think?’ And they said, ‘We think you’re the coolest mum in the world’. I always ask the kids whatever I’m doing because it affects them as well. They were for it, and they loved the series.”
The programme is one of the reasons that Linda has teamed up with medical cannabis brand Releaf to try and reduce the stigma around the drug.
On the road trip, Linda was introduced to a young girl whose life had improved hugely by taking medicinal cannabis.
She said: “We met a young girl who was seven or eight, she was having up to 90 seizures a day, after taking the cannabis, they mixed it in with her food, and they reduced by 75 per cent.”
And closer to home there are friends and loved ones who are also benefiting from it.
Linda said: “One of my husband’s best friends has got really bad MS and my husband goes round to him every night, does his roll-ups for him, helps out. He lives 10 minutes from us and Mark goes to see him every night just to make sure he’s all right.
“My sister’s had breast cancer and she takes cannabis oil under her tongue every day, and that’s definitely helped her. When she was having chemo she was so sick, but after taking the cannabis that definitely helped with her sickness as well.
“If I had anything I would definitely take it, 100 per cent, without even worrying about it, even if I got arrested.”