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The broadcast regulator received 21 complaints about Rivers' outburst during her guest appearance on the lunchtime magazine show in June.

Rivers, who was on the show to promote her West End acting debut, described actor Russell Crowe as "a piece of, get ready to bleep this, fucking shit".

In its ruling today, Ofcom praised ITV1 for taking swift action to remove her from the show. The channel apologised to viewers on four separate occasions.

Some of the complaints came from parents whose children had heard the language.

But Ofcom said 'Loose Women' was aimed at an adult audience and this edition of the programme was broadcast during term time when few young people would have been watching.

Responding to the complaint, ITV1 apologised for any offence caused and said the show's production team had "fully briefed [Rivers] about the nature of the live daytime broadcast and the clear need for avoiding strong language".

One of the show's presenters, Jackie Brambles, apologised immediately after the outburst and again before and after an ad break, with a fourth apology made by the continuity announcer during the closing credits.

The regulator said today: "Ofcom considers that ITV acted responsibly on this occasion and broadcast several apologies.

"Given that this was an isolated occurrence which the broadcaster acted swiftly to recognise and remedy, Ofcom considers the matter resolved.

Although ITV1 was commended for the actions it took, its digital sister channel ITV2 was criticised by Ofcom for what the channel admitted was "an unusual series of human errors".

The regulator ruled that an episode of fly-on-the-wall show 'Katie and Peter: The Next Chapter', broadcast in June, contained "excessive offensive language".

One viewer complained to the regulator that the words "fuck", "shit" and "wanker" were used frequently in the programme, which chronicled the daily life of celebrity couple Katie Price and Peter Andre.

The programme aired at 8pm, an hour before the watershed.

ITV said it had made a "serious error" with its scheduling and the wrong version of the programme was transmitted.