On Monday’s instalment of Loose Women, ITV star Denise Welch was quick to address the latest viral claims surrounding her ‘disappearance’ over the weekend

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Loose Women’s Denise Welch was quick to put to bed the latest claims she found herself victim to over the weekend. As the ITV show kicked off on Monday afternoon, Jane Moore joked they were lucky Denise was able to join them.

She said: “You had the nation in a little bit of a panic!” Explaining what had happened, Denise told viewers that over the weekend, she discovered that her name was trending on Twitter, now X.

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Denise said she was enjoying a film on Saturday when a friend, who is a journalist, messaged to see if the article they had found about her was true.

The Loose Women star said: “An hour later, she panicked, and I started getting messages going, ‘just checking you’re ok’. I thought, what on earth are people talking about?!”

Loose Women’s Denise Welch details family’s brutal reaction to ‘missing’ claims

After looking at the link her friend had sent, Denise explained the fake article read: “Denise Welch is worrying many of her fans that I’d gone missing in a hot air balloon over the Pyrenees and the Kent Police put out a thing that they were actively looking for me. Then the meme’s started.”

As the live audience was laughing about the whole ordeal, Denise said people created photos of her in the hot air balloon next to Mariah Carey.

Meanwhile someone else created a fake Lady GaGa quote airing her concern. She said: “Then, it started trending in the US, where nobody knows me.

Denise spoke about the bizarre story over the weekend

“There’s memes of Donald Trump being whispering to by his colleagues saying, ‘she’s still missing we need your help’. It was basically this massive story!”

However, Denise revealed she had no idea where the fake story had come from. Jane was curious to know what her family thought of the article, although their response wasn’t as concerned as her friends.

Denise said: “My husband is in Singapore on business and my son lives in Los Angeles.

Denise Welch’s eldest son is The 1975 frontman Matty Healy(Image: GETTY)

“They both apparently woke up to see, respectively, their mother and their wife missing over the Pyrenees in a hot air balloon and both went back to sleep!”

She pulled a face which told audiences she was clearly unimpressed by their reaction before bursting out laughing. Jane replied: “Well, we’re very glad you made it back today.”

Denise replied: “Thank you. I’m exhausted, but thank you.”

Loose Women continues weekdays on ITV from 12:30pm