Holly Willoughby says it’s ‘hard to see Phillip Schofield suffering

Holly Willoughby's This Morning statement

Holly Willoughby took an extended half-term break from the ITV show and returned this morning alongside new co-host Josie Gibson.

Before the This Morning presenter kicked off the show, she gave a brief monologue of how she had been feeling and claimed it was hard to see Phillip Schofield struggling.

She expressed: “You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved, that is a love to process.

“It is equally hard to see the toll it has taken on their own mental health.”

At the beginning of her monologue, Holly said: “It feels very strange sitting here without Phil and I imagine you have been feeling like I have.

“Shaken, troubled, let down and worried about the wellbeing of people on all sides of what has been going on and full of questions.

“I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal and the health and wellbeing of everyone. I hope as we start this new chapter we get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us and that we can find strength in each other.

“Thank you for all of your kinds messages and for being here this morning, myself, Josie, Dermot [O’Leary], Alison [Hammond] and Craig [Doyle] and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you the show that we love.”

During Phillip’s interview with The Sun, he spoke about how his friendship with Holly is now over.

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He said “I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.

“Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you’.

“She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply, as well. So yeah. If anyone is in any way linking Holly to this; that is ­absolutely, wholly untrue.

“I had no feud with Holly. She is my TV sister. But quite rightly, when I am in the middle of a s**t show with bad press over something where I have done nothing wrong.

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“Quite rightly, she is going to take a step back and think, ‘I have to step back from this’, and I understand that completely. As we see now, this is a vicious game and the last thing you want is for something to stick on you.

“It was becoming bigger than the people we had on the show. I understand that.”

This was the first time that Holly had spoken out against the admission from Phillip despite other This Morning colleagues having their say.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.

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