Richard Madeley is forced to apologise as he shocks co-host Kate Garraway by SWEARING on Good Morning Britain

Richard Madeley was forced to apologise during Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning Britain after swearing live on air.

The broadcaster, 67, suffered the slip-up during an interview about the UK’s air traffic control chaos which has led to thousands of flights being cancelled.

Speaking to Olympian Iwan Thomas, who like many stars has been stranded, Richard said: ‘It’s a good job you kept your passport on you. And it’s a good job you’ve got a couple of credit cards on you.’

He then added: ‘Otherwise you really would be stuck, you would just basically be sitting on your a**e.’

A surprised Kate Garraway turned towards Richard, and he quickly corrected himself before adding: ‘Excuse me. Sitting on your bottom, at the airport on the floor, which so many people are.’

Almost 1,000 flights were grounded and cancelled with thousands more delayed after Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) experienced ‘technical issues’ on Monday.

Today, around 200,000 passengers remain stranded in a location they do not wish to be, while 200 flights out of the UK have been cancelled due to crew and aircraft being out of position. This includes 80 operated by easyJet and 60 by British Airways.

Sources previously told The Times that the fault may have been caused by an incorrectly filed plan by a French airline. NATS has ruled out a cyber attack.

On Monday’s GMB, it was Richard’s co-host Kate Garraway that was left red-faced after finding out her missing phone had caused quite the stir in the ITV studios.

Kate had been presenting Good Morning Britain alongside Richard when she discovered crew had been running around behind-the-scenes searching for it.

Addressing the topic live on air, Lorraine guest presenter Ranvir Singh appeared to discuss what was coming up on the ITV show.

But perplexed as to what had gone on, Kate admitted: ‘Now, I’ve got a missed call from you about 20 minutes ago, which panicked me slightly. 

‘I thought, “is she ringing me to say I’m not going to make it in?” But you’re there, which is good!’

Awkward! Kate Garraway was left red-faced after finding out her missing phone had caused quite the stir in the ITV studios on Monday

Ranvir, 46, was quick to clarify: ‘No, I’ll tell you what happened, Kate. I walked into the building and everyone is in a panic because they couldn’t find your phone. Apparently you’d lost it!’ 

Finally understanding the confusion, Kate was left red-faced as she burst out laughing, pointing out: ‘So you were one of the people trying to call it!’ 

Ranvir added: ‘Yes! Helen in the dressing room, she said, “Ranvir, you’ve got Kate’s number, ring it?” so I thought: Alright, I haven’t got anything else to do!’

Kate then joked about being ‘high maintenance’, to which Ranvir quipped: ‘Listen, we are all here in service of you and we love it.’