Holly Willoughby struggled to keep her emotions under control as she addressed This Morning viewers after her return to ITV for the first time since Phillip Schofield sensationally quit the channel. Holly was back at work after an extended half-term break amid the chaos surrounding the daytime TV show and Schofield's shock exit after he admitted he had an affair with a young runner.
At the top of Monday's show, in which Holly was joined by Josie Gibson for hosting duties, the 42-year-old directly spoke to viewers about Schofield's departure.
Her statement came after her former co-star of 14 years and formerly good friend's admission last week that he had a relationship with the young man, who he'd met when he visited his theatre school when the man was aged just 15. Schofield has said it was an "unwise" but "not illegal" romance and shortly after he came clean, Holly took to social media to say she'd been left "hurt" as she'd asked him straight out if the rumours were true and he had denied them.
In two bombshell interviews last week, he confessed the romance started in dressing room when the man was and he profusely denied allegations of "grooming". He also apologised for lying to his work colleagues, his bosses, Holly, his family, the young man, and his wife Stephanie Lowe, who had been in the dark too.
Today was the first time she's spoken live on TV since the drama erupted and body language expert Judi James reckons she did so with "survivors" in mind.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, she said Holly got "strength" to deliver her "perfectly-formed" speech from Josie being by her side and offering her support - though some of her gestures were very much from the "political handbook of body language."
Judi said: "This small-but-perfectly-formed speech from Holly was delivered in the theme that we are all survivors and that we, like Holly, will be feeling shaken and troubled.
"Sitting small and rather fragile next to a looming, protective Josie, Holly moved from empathy mode to Biblical to political, talking about ‘What unites us is a desire to heal’ and that we would find ‘Strength in each other’.
"She found her strength in Josie, holding her hand more than once and submitting to a demanded hug from Josie at the end, which was probably meant to be a virtual group hug with the viewers.
"Holly’s gesture of placing both hands on her heart is very much from the political handbook of body language, suggesting love, trust and honour.
"She patted Josie in their hug to signal to break and then it was a toss of the head and her perky smile was back in place as she moved to get on with the rest of the show."
As we reported earlier, Holly addressed viewers at the top of Monday’s show as she said she has been feeling “shaken, troubled and let down” about Phillip’s admission.
She said: "Deep breath - firstly, are you OK? I hope so. It feels very strange sitting here without Phil and I imagine you might be feeling a lot like I have - shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what's been going on, and full of questions.
"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 that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.
*This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV
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