Carol McGiffin and Denise Welch lose cool during live show over Prince Andrew’s settlement

Denise Welch and Carol McGiffin clashed on Thursday’s show during a fiery discussion over Prince Andrew’s settlement of the US civil sexual assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre.

On Thursday's instalment of Loose Women McGiffin locked horns with her Loose Women co-star Welch as a blazing row over the case and the Queen's jubilee celebrations erupted live on air.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Guiffre's civil case was drawn to a close on Tuesday after their lawyers announced they had reached a multi-million-dollar settlement. 

Host Kaye Adams, 59, posed the opening question to Carol, saying: “Do you think this has diminished trust in the Royal family?”

She replied: “Why do we have to trust them? They’re the Royal family. I just want them to be there. I don’t actually care what is going on with them, because the point is we do not know.”

She continued: “The speculation that surrounds the Royal family is rife. It always has been and they never apologise, they never explain, they never tell you anything, so you don’t know."

“You don't know where the money’s coming from - I don’t care where it’s coming from, if it’s the public money or it’s any money. We don’t even know if it’s 12 million do we?”

Fellow panellist Denise cut in saying: “Do you think Andrew should be stripped of his titles? Are you bothered about that?”

As the volume turned up between the panellists in the studio, Carol said: “Look, we still don’t know what happened.”

Denise exclaimed: “What I’m saying is Jeffrey Epstein has already been found guilty of child sex offences. Andrew went - that wasn’t a mistake. That was a journey he made.”

Kaye finally interjected, saying: “Hold on, he’s apologised for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. That is the extent of it. He has made a settlement and it has gone to Virginia Guiffre’s charity.”

Denise then muttered off camera: “Good. Completely innocent then.”

Carol again weighed in to say: “There’s no day in court, so we’ll never know. Even if there had been, we would never have known anyway. It’s he says she says and it’s who you believe. Can we drop it now?”

Kaye concluded the heated conversation saying that the public demand “transparency” from the Royal family.

She said: “Let’s be realistic, the royal family, if we go back centuries - like every family - has had scandal running through it. Until a certain point in history they were able to employ the tactic of saying nothing and the press stood back."