Katie Piper has been forced to pull out of her morning show this weekend due to an “unexpected medical procedure”.
The TV personality and activist, who suffered life-changing burns in an acid attack in March 2008, announced on Saturday morning that ITV presenter Charlotte Hawkins would be stepping in for her at the last minute.
Piper, 40, said “all is well” and hopes to return to presenting Katie Piper’s Breakfast Show on ITV next weekend after getting some rest.
In an Instagram post, she wrote: “Sadly, I’m not going to be on my breakfast show this weekend as I’ve had to have an unexpected medical procedure.
“All is well and I hope after some rest I’ll be back in the hot seat next weekend.”
In the caption, she added: “I’ll be back soon” and thanked Good Morning Britain presenter Hawkins for “stepping in last minute”.
Hawkins was among those to send Piper well wishes, writing: “Sending lots of love to you.”
Broadcaster Carol Vorderman also said: “Take care wonderful lady. You come first Telly is just telly. Sending huge love and respect xxx”
Piper’s hour-long weekend breakfast show features celebrity guests and topical discussions.
In the opening of Saturday’s show, Hawkins said: “Katie can’t be here this morning but she has entrusted me to look after the show and to make sure you all at home still have your Saturday fix of fun and positivity.”
The show featured guests including Gladiators star Livi Sheldon, known as Diamond on the show, and comedian Sophie Duker.
After surviving an acid attack at the age of 24, former model Piper has been open about her journey dealing with the subsequent complications and made a Channel 4 documentary in 2009 called Katie: My Beautiful Face.
She was left partially blind, with severe scarring to her face, chest, neck, arm and hands, after sulphuric acid was thrown in her face.
She founded the Katie Piper Foundation a few months after the documentary aired to support burns victims and has undergone more than 250 operations over the past decade.
The mother of two also hosted a podcast, Katie Piper’s Extraordinary People, in which she chatted with inspirational people who have turned adversity into positivity, and is also a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.
In 2021, she was made an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list for her services to charity and victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries.