Alison Hammond has returned to This Morning a week after leaving the ITV programme during a live broadcast when she feared she was having a heart attack. The presenter later learned that the episode had been a panic attack.
Back on the sofa alongside Dermot O’Leary, Hammond, 51, said the experience had been “probably one of the most scariest things” she had ever been through and admitted she had felt anxious about returning to the programme.
She told viewers: “I felt like I went into the other world. What’s that show that I love? Stranger Things. You know when you go into the upside down world? I felt like I went into the upside-down world.”
Hammond said she had been unable to catch her breath and had initially believed she was suffering a heart attack. She ran off set because her son might have been watching, saying she “just couldn’t catch my breath”.
“I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack,” she said. “I’m so glad I’m here. I feel so grateful. I feel so thankful to God, to everything in life.”
The presenter thanked the team for supporting her and said the incident had changed the way she viewed her health and her life. She added that she was “so happy” to be back and to see O’Leary.
Hammond also joked about her return during a teaser for the programme, echoing Holly Willoughby’s much-discussed words when she returned to This Morning in 2023.
As Lorraine Kelly welcomed her back, Hammond said: “And I’m going to tell you everything, guys. Are you OK? I hope you are.”
Alison Hammond discusses panic attack on This Morning
The programme later focused on panic attacks, with Hammond and O’Leary joined by Dr Sian Williams. The doctor described an attack as a rush of adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormone.
Praising Hammond for speaking openly about what had happened, Dr Williams said: “You normalised it. You named it. This is panic. You just sort of let people know that it’s OK to have it, and you’re back doing the job.”
Hammond said she had been worried that returning to the programme might make her associate This Morning with the panic attack.
“I was anxious about coming back, but I thought if I don’t come back today, probably wouldn’t come back,” she said. “I don’t think I’d come back because then I would have made a thing that it’s This Morning that is causing the panic, but it can happen anywhere.”
Last week, Hammond had been seen clutching her chest and struggling to breathe before leaving the studio and going to hospital for tests. She later said checks on her heart, lungs and blood had been clear.
In a message after returning home, the Great British Bake Off star said she was “safe” and “feeling so much better”, adding that she needed to learn more about panic attacks and was taking stock and resting.
She also addressed the incident in a speech read by her friend Kate Lawler at the Attitude Awards, where Hammond received The Honorary Gay award. Hammond said that being seen struggling, rather than making other people laugh, had left her in “a very vulnerable place”.
