HOLLY Willoughby has blasted Phillip Schofield amid her return to This Morning telling viewers: “we gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth”x
The host, 42, was back co-fronting the ITV1 daytime show on Monday for the first time since 61-year-old Phillip’s departure on 26 May after it was revealed he had an affair with a much younger male colleague.
Holly added in a brief and emotional opening statement she felt “shaken, troubled, let down and worried”, adding it “feels very strange indeed” to be back on the show without him, before saying its team had “gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth”.
She said it was “equally hard to see the toll” the scandal has taken on Phillip, along with how it had affected others.
Holly added: “I hope that as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic… we can find hope in each other.
“We will continue to work hard every day to bring you the show that we love.”
She was hugged by her co-presenter for the day Josie Gibson, 38, who added they were working on keeping the show a “family”, with tearful Holly then concluding: “Exactly”, before the show got down to business as usual.
Holly was photographed arriving separately at the Television Centre in White City, London, ahead of her comeback episode.
Her return to presenting duties along with Gibson was confirmed at the end of Friday’s show, which was hosted by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary.
Phillip told last week he fears he will be spat on in the street if he leaves his house amid the fallout from his affair, which happened while he was still married.
He told The Sun: “I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door.
“I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, ‘It will get better’. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.
“You watch all these layers of you slide away and slide away and slide away. The things that were dear to you.
“But I deserve it. It’s my fault. I deserve it.”
Phillip said he had never previously suffered abuse on the street, but asked about the prospect of being hit with it if he goes outside: “Are they spitting on me because I had an affair at work and lied about it?”
He added he was being supported by his daughters Molly, 30, and Ruby, 27, who he had with his wife of 30 years Stephanie Lowe years before he publicly came out as gay on ‘This Morning’ in February 2020.
Phillip also gave an interview with the BBC on Thursday (01.06.23) in which he insisted he had not groomed his lover, who he first got in contact with when he was aged 15.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV1.
