Nadia Sawalha (; born 18 November 1964) is an English actress, television personality, writer, TV cook and vlogger. She is best known as a long-term regular panellist on the ITV daytime talk show Loose Women, being one of the original panellists from its start in 1999 until 2002, before returning to the show in 2013 after a panellist revamp. She played the role of Gina in the ITV comedy Second Thoughts from 1992 to 1994, and Annie Palmer on the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 1997 to 1999. She has also had minor roles in The Bill, Casualty, Benidorm and 99-1. Sawalha presented a number of television programmes in the early 2000s, whilst taking a break from Loose Women.
Sawalha won the 2007 series of Celebrity MasterChef. She has been cooking with her sister Dina on YouTube since January 2023.
Contents
Early life
Sawalha was raised and still lives in Croydon, south London. She is the daughter of the Jordanian-born British actor Nadim Sawalha and his English wife Roberta Lane. Nadia is the sister of television actress Julia Sawalha and has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank with her. In 1997, the three starred together in Dearest Daddy... Darling Daughter at the Young Vic Theatre in London. However, the family pulled out of the performance after hearing of Nadia's husband's death.
Career
After training at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Sawalha began her career in theatre. From 1997 to 1999, she starred in EastEnders as businesswoman Annie Palmer. Her other acting television credits include Casualty, Which Way to the War, The Vanishing Man (1996), the BBC Victorian drama Station Jim (2001) and the ITV police drama The Bill. Sawalha has also appeared in the films Clockwise (1986), Slave of Dreams (1995), and the straight-to-video release Caught in the Act (1997).
From 1999 to 2002, Sawalha was a regular panellist on the lunchtime chat show Loose Women. She returned in October 2013 and has appeared during most weeks in the last decade.
In 2001, Sawalha presented the short-lived ITV quiz programme It's Not the Answer, with Peter Dickinson as the announcer.
For the BBC, Sawalha has fronted four series of Passport to the Sun, one series each of Total, TV Mail, Heir Hunters, Perfect Partner and Family Exchange. She was also a co-host on the live documentary City Hospital. She has previously hosted the BBC One show Living in the Sun, about British expats living in Spain, and Wanted Down Under, which shows families who want to make the move Down Under (Australia, occasionally New Zealand) and what it would be like to live and work in those Antipodean nations. She could also be seen on Accidents Can Happen, a daytime BBC One programme produced by Twofour, which follows families as they try to rebuild their homes and their lives following disaster.
In 2005, Sawalha presented one series of the BBC One programme Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre which followed learner drivers as they learnt to drive and took their driving tests with varying degrees of success. Sawalha was one of the learner drivers who ended up passing her driving test at the end of the second series. That year, and on the same network, Sawalha also co-presented with Jeremy Milnes for one series of the programme Keeping Up with the Joneses.
In the summer of 2006, Sawalha began co-presenting The One Show with Adrian Chiles. However, due to her pregnancy, she did not return to the show in the summer of 2007, and was replaced by Christine Bleakley.
YouTube
Sawalha started a YouTube channel with fellow Loose Women panellist Kaye Adams. They had their own YouTube platform, Instagram account and Facebook page, in which they did weekly vlogs, cooking videos, film and TV programme reviews. They also focused on daily normal family routines as well. This account, however, is now inactive.
Sawalha also launched a Sawalha-Adderley YouTube channel. The Sawalha-Adderleys (Originally Nadia Sawalha and Family) on Monday 25 August 2014, featuring Sawalha with her husband Mark Adderley. Also regularly appearing are Adderley's mother Diane Adderley and Sawalha's sister Dina.
The channel began as a film and TV show review in which Sawalha, Adderley and occasionally their children would review films coming out in the cinema, or a popular TV show on television. However, by the end of 2014, her family decided to make varied content with the first being Vlogmas where the family do a vlog every day in December. This proved to be a hit with their followers. From 2015 onwards, the channel has been releasing at least two videos daily, but their children no longer appear in their content.
In December 2016, the channel launched a subscription service. It had a monthly cost of £1.99 and included their weekly The No-Named Sunday show which features different segments from memes, cooking, newspapers, book reviews, Teddy Talks, and an occasional livestream for members only.
In February 2019, the channel reached 50,000 subscribers. On 4 May 2020, the channel reached 100,000 subscribers and received a "silver play button".
Personal life
On Christmas Day 1997, Sawalha's first husband, Justin Mildwater's body was discovered. The inquest subsequently heard that there were "traces of cocaine and cannabis in his blood and he had been drinking". The Coroner, Dr William Dolman, recorded an open verdict on the death, as he could not be sure of the deceased motives. The couple had been married for five years, but had split up a few months before. On 6 June 2002, she married her second husband, Mark Adderley. The following year, he was caught on the M4 near Chippenham with twice the legal level of alcohol in his blood to legally drive. Adderley has been sober following a period of rehabilitation. Both Sawalha and Adderley have discussed his path to sobriety on their YouTube channel. The couple live in Upper Norwood, south London, and have two daughters.
Sawalha has suffered from psoriasis, and has used homeopathy rather than conventional treatment. In 2019, Sawalha revealed on Loose Women that she suffers from tinnitus. On 31 May 2017, Sawalha spoke in an emotional video online about losing her hair at the age of 52. Sawalha said that her curls were fake and she was going through the perimenopause, the start of the menopause. She said that a doctor told her in September 2016 she had the balding gene. On 25 November 2022, Sawalha announced on Loose Women that she had been diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 58. Sawalha is an atheist.
In the wake of the Gaza war, Sawalha has been a vocal advocate for Palestine, and a critic of Israel. In July 2026, Sawalha and Adderley received an apology, substantial libel damages and legal costs from the Daily Mail and Metro publisher over false allegations that suggested the couple showed "support for terrorism or hatred of Jews". The following month, she threatened legal action against ITV, claiming that they had dropped her from Loose Women for speaking out in favour of Palestinian rights. A group of Jewish entertainment industry executives had sent a dossier to the network, urging them not to bring Sawalha back; they cited "repeated examples of conspiratorial rhetoric, inflammatory commentary, disinformation, and antisemitic discourse". She stated that she has not been given a chance to see the document and respond to the claims, but has denied antisemitism. The European Legal Support Center, which advocates for pro-Palestinian cases, has written to ITV on her behalf; they allege discrimination owing to her "anti-Zionist beliefs, which are protected under the Equality Act 2010".