Holly Willoughby said she felt “shaken, troubled, let down and worried” as she returned to This Morning after the Phillip Schofield affair scandal.
The presenter choked back tears and clutched co-star Josie Gibson's hand as she addressed the row live on air at the start of Monday's show.
Former host Phillip Schofield quit the long-running ITV daytime show last week after admitting to an affair with a younger, male runner.
Addressing the furore in her opening statement today, Holly appeared to make a dig at her co-star as she told viewers: "You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth."
She began: "Good morning. Josie, thank you for being here.
"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.
"And it's equally hard to see the toll that it's taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone. I hope that as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.
"And from my own heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison and Craig and every single person on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you the show that we love."
Reacting to Holly's statement, viewers were left divided as one tweeted: "If you don’t believe Holly Willoughby, then change the channel. Not that hard. I for one, support her 100% and wish her the best in what is a tough situation. #ThisMorning."
"Dunno why Holly is getting blamed for criticising Phil but also equally getting blamed for apparently doing nothing about it (dunno why she’s supposed to know what Phil gets up to in his own time but whatever), damned if you do, damned if you don’t #ThisMorning," another wrote.
However, another disagreed: "On Friday I believed Alison & you could tell she was truly upset. Unfortunately I didn’t feel the same listening to Holly Willoughby this morning. She’s come across as fake and you could tell it’s not her words, but ITV’s legal team! #ThisMorning."
This is the first time Holly has presented This Morning since Phillip's immediate exit was announced and his subsequent "unwise" but "not illegal" affair with a younger colleague, who was 20-years-old at the time of the brief romantic relationship.
Phillip told BBC’s Amol Rajan he “didn’t tell anybody” about his affair with his former This Morning colleague, confirming Holly “did not know” in the tell-all interview.
The presenter told Amol he doubted he would return to a career in TV after parting ways with ITV and his management company.
He said: "I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart. I have lost everything. What am I going to do with my days? I see nothing ahead of me but blackness, and sadness, and regret, and remorse, and guilt. I did something very wrong, and then I lied about it consistently."
Former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes and the show’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh have both separately made allegations about the culture behind the scenes at the programme in the wake of Schofield’s departure.
ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall has been called to a parliamentary committee on June 14 to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling following Schofield’s exit.
An overnight report in The Sun suggested Schofield indicated he would not be watching Willoughby’s return to screen, with a friend telling the publication he “physically could not watch — he’s not there yet”.
