Alison Hammond: ‘I thought I was having heart attack on air’

Hammond and O’Leary also spoke further about panic attacks with former BBC Breakfast host and psychologist Dr Sian Williams, who has written a book about anxiety.

Hammond said she had been unsure about returning to This Morning – but felt that if she didn’t come back this week, she may never do so.

“I’ll be honest with you, I was anxious about coming back. But I thought, if I don’t come back today, I probably wouldn’t come back… because then I would have made a thing that it’s This Morning that’s causing the panic.

“But it can happen anywhere. It comes in ebbs and flows.”

She and Williams also discussed the pressure of presenting live TV. “I do live TV all the time, I didn’t realise it was having – I don’t know if it was having an impact – the fact that you have to be ‘on’ in order to do it. I don’t know,” Hammond said.

She concluded the segment by telling viewers: “I’m back, babes. Keep rolling.”

Following her departure from last Friday’s episode, Hammond posted a video from a hospital bed saying she was “getting my old ticker checked out” after what she described as “a little bit of a palpitation”, which she hoped “was just a little panic attack”.

She missed the Attitude Awards on Wednesday, where she won the The Honorary Gay Award.

The Birmingham-born presenter also hosts TV shows including This Morning and For the Love of Dogs.