Charlene White on Loose Women, prejudice and the poppy row: ‘It still upsets me’ Ellen E Jones When Charlene White was small, she dreamed of becoming a courageous, wrong-righting lawyer. That was until she did a week’s work experience at Croydon crown court. “I realised it’s not like it is on the telly. I kept nodding off.” Plan B soon presented itself: “We devoured Trevor McDonald on the news every evening at home, so I thought: actually, maybe journalism is the way I impact the world.” White is speaking via a video call from a quiet corner of an ITV building. She has just finished recording an episode of Loose Women (referred to only as “Loose” by everyone at ITV), the daytime chatshow for which she was announced as the new main panellist a few weeks ago. Tonight, she will read the news on ITV News London’s evening bulletin. Since joining the channel from the BBC in 2008, she has become a familiar face on ITV’s national news, too, regularly anchoring the flagship Evening News programme. In 2014, she became the first black woman to host News at 10.