‘I remember looking at the studio lights and thinking… this isn’t where I’m supposed to be’: Kate McCann tells of moment she blacked out on live TV during Tory leadership debate

• The TalkTV anchor opened up to Good Morning Britain presenters this morning
• The debate at a studio in Ealing, west London was cancelled after 30 minutes
• Ms Truss was speaking when a loud noise caused her to hold her face in shock
• Ms McCann said she just remembered waking up disoriented on the floor
• She believed it could’ve been an adrenaline crash but she’s fully recovered now

TalkTV anchor Kate McCann has opened up about what happened after she collapsed during a live Tory leadership debate between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Speaking to Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain this morning, the political editor recalled noticing when she came around, ‘I was the wrong way up, and I remember looking at the studio lights and thinking that’s not where I’m supposed to be.’   

The showdown between the Foreign Secretary and ex-chancellor last Tuesday was taken off air after around 30 minutes and then cancelled on the advice of medical experts present at the studio in Ealing, west London.

The dramatic moment when Ms McCann blacked out took place as Ms Truss was answering a question. A loud noise caused the clearly worried leadership hopeful to hold her face in shock.

The political editor recalled noticing when she came around, ‘I was the wrong way up, and I remember looking at the studio lights and thinking that’s not where I’m supposed to be’

Speaking to Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain this morning, the TalkTV anchor opened up about what happened after she collapsed during a live Tory leadership debate between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

This morning, Ms McCann told the GMB presenters she is now almost fully recovered. She went on to explain exactly what was going on for her throughout

This morning, Ms McCann told the GMB presenters she is now almost fully recovered.

She went on to explain exactly what was going on for her throughout. Although when the hosts asked her what was going through her mind, she jokingly responded, ‘Well, nothing!’

Ms McCann said she just remembered waking up disoriented on the floor, with a person who she presumed was Mr Sunak asking her how old she was.

But it was actually a paramedic who was questioning her as she came around. ‘I think they were trying to see if I was aware or conscious,’ she explained.

Ms McCann laughed as she recalled, ‘They kept asking me over and over again, and I kept thinking why does Rishi Sunak want to know my age? It’s not relevant here!’

Meanwhile, the broadcast feed was swiftly cut, with viewers shown the message: ‘We’re sorry for the disruption to this programme. We’re working hard to fix the issue and will return to normal programming soon.’

The dramatic moment when Ms McCann blacked out took place as Ms Truss was answering a question

A loud noise caused the clearly worried leadership hopeful to hold her face in shock

There was a long pause in the broadcast while viewers wondered what had happened in the studio, before a ‘medical issue’ was cited as being the cause of the disturbance.

Slowly, Ms McCann started to make sense of what was going on, as she said, ‘Then it obviously wasn’t Rishi Sunak, and I was the wrong way up, and I remember looking at the studio lights and thinking that’s not where I’m supposed to be.’

Reflecting on why she thought she might have fainted, Ms McCann said there are many reasons, but ruled out nervousness, saying, ‘I wasn’t nervous. I was really nervous when we started, but those heart-hammering really good nerves you get when you’re about to do something – adrenaline.’

She said many people, MPs and TV presenters alike, had got in touch with her about their fainting stories, with one telling her, ‘When you’re running on adrenaline and then your body relaxes, that can be enough unfortunately.’ 

Ms McCann believed this might have happened to her, as she explained, ‘What’s really ironic is we got to that moment when we’d just started talking about Ukraine and I knew we had a really good question coming because Piers Morgan had just done an interview with the Zelenskyys [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena] and we were going to do it exclusively, so I relaxed.

‘And at that moment I woke up on the floor, and I have no recollection of feeling sick or dizzy or faint beforehand. It’s just really, really unfortunate.’

The showdown between the Foreign Secretary and ex-chancellor last Tuesday was taken off air after around 30 minutes and then cancelled on the advice of medical experts present at the studio in Ealing, west London

The broadcast feed was swiftly cut, with viewers shown the message: ‘We’re sorry for the disruption to this programme. We’re working hard to fix the issue and will return to normal programming soon’

In what she described as a ‘motherly way’, Ms Garraway asked, ‘Are you worried about this? Because it doesn’t feel very normal Kate. You don’t seem panicked by the fact that you’re just fainting!’

Ms McCann responded with a laugh, ‘Well, it’s not normal!’

But when the presenters went on to ask if the doctors thought it was serious, she added, ‘Oh no, it’s fine. it’s quite common.’ 

The hosts also asked if Ms McCann fainted frequently, to which she replied that she does not and only did so once a long time ago.

‘I think it’s just really unfortunately,’ Ms McCann concluded. ‘It’s just bad luck.’

McCann has said she felt a ‘little embarrassed’ and a ‘little bruised’ upon her return to the studio the following day to host The News Desk.

Filling in as planned for regular presenter, Tom Newton Dunn, she joked ‘after all the excitement from last night’s leaders debate, thank goodness I’m sitting down’.

And the production team had hidden a chocolate bar and two bags of Skittles underneath her desk as a precaution, she has revealed, while her coffee cup was also filled with Coke.

McCann has said she felt a ‘little embarrassed’ and a ‘little bruised’ upon her return to the studio the following day to host The News Desk

Ms McCann, who left her role as political correspondent at Sky News to join TalkTV as its political editor in January, is a highly popular figure among Westminster journalists, and considered a ‘rising star’ in her industry

McCann said Ms Truss’ shocked reaction was ‘as you hope we all would’ and allowed viewers to have a glimpse of ‘the real person’.

She added: ‘I only wish it was my questioning, not passing out, that had revealed it.’

Ms McCann, who left her role as political correspondent at Sky News to join TalkTV as its political editor in January, is a highly popular figure among Westminster journalists, and considered a ‘rising star’ in her industry.

The presenter, who is in her early thirties, graduated from Newcastle University in 2009 with a degree in Politics, and after a short stint as a parliamentary researcher joined the Guardian.

After short stints as a political correspondent at financial newspaper City AM and as a Whitehall correspondent at The Sun, she joined the Telegraph as one of its top political reporters.

Among her other achievements, Ms McCann was chair of the Press Gallery in 2018. She was only the second woman to hold the title in over 200 years.

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