Alison Hammond has shut down rumours of a rift with her This Morning co-host Dermot O’Leary
(Picture: Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images)Alison Hammond has put an end to the speculation she is not getting on with her This Morning co-host Dermot O’Leary.
The daytime presenter, 47, has said she “can’t tell you how much I love that man”, in reference to O’Leary, 49, as she spoke on a podcast.
It was rumoured that the TV duo “bickered” and didn’t “hit it off” behind the scenes of This Morning, when they first began hosting the show together.
Hammond has shut these rumours down while appearing on the Saving Grace podcast, as she spoke of how “hilarious’ she found the false gossip, after people assumed she and O’Leary had “beef”.
“I can’t tell you how wrong they actually are. I love the fact that people think that. I’m gonna keep that going,” Hammond said.
“Go ‘babes, people think we hate each other, let’s do a couple of things on the telly, like stand further apart’. Like we’re still distancing! But seriously, I love the fact people think we’ve got beef, it’s hilarious.
“Honestly I can’t tell you how much I love that man, he’s so funny.”
Hammond and O’Leary go way back after meeting when she appeared as a contestant on Big Brother in 2002 and he was presenting Big Brother’s Little Brother.
The pair, however, began their co-presenting gig awkwardly, they have both admitted, after they hadn’t seen each other for a few years in between.
O’Leary told Fabulous magazine last year: “We never got to pilot, we’d never read a script through, we didn’t even have lunch together.
“We literally met for the first time in 15 years or so and that morning we presented two-and-a-half hours of live television together.”
Hammond said on Lorraine last May: “We were thrown together on a Friday, a bit like an arranged marriage.”
With barely any time to prepare for their new jobs, the co-hosts eventually felt at ease, and Hammond added: “It took about two months to feel comfortable.
“We told each other what we didn’t like. We had a few private chats and said, ‘Oh, I don’t like this about you, and the other said, ’Well, I don’t like you when you do this’.
“I think the fact we were honest and able to talk to each other... I trust him now.”
