// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Alison Hammond: 'I thought I was having heart attack on air'
Hammond returned to This Morning one week after her dramatic early exit
Alison Hammond has said she feared she was having a heart attack on air when she had to rush off ITV's This Morning midway through the programme last week.
The presenter appeared to clutch her chest as she left the show last Friday, and was taken to hospital to have a heart check-up.
She turned out to have suffered a panic attack, and said the experience was "probably one of the most scariest things I've ever been through".
Returning for her weekly slot on Friday, she told viewers: "I couldn't catch my breath and I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack. I'm so glad I'm here. I feel so grateful. I feel so thankful to God, to everything in life."
She added: "It felt like a heart attack. It was very real."
Hammond was alongside Dermot O'Leary as usual on This Morning on Friday
Alongside co-host Dermot O'Leary, Hammond introduced the programme by thanking him for holding the fort after her dramatic early exit, and also thanking everyone who sent good wishes.
She added: "It was the first time I've ever experienced anything like that. Secondly it was live on TV so I thought, oh my gosh, my son might be watching.
"So I just ran. I ran off TV. I would never do that normally but I just couldn't catch my breath."