Holly Willoughby is believed to be utterly determined to stay at This Morning amid calls for her to step down.
The TV presenter, 42, has found herself caught up in the eye of a storm after her former co-host Phillip Schofield admitted to having an affair with a much younger male staff member at This Morning.
Despite Holly claiming that she knew nothing about the affair while Phillip was married, several former ITV stars and fellow celebrities has now urged the star to step down from her role as host of This Morning after her 13-year reign, with the damage being 'irreparable' given the velocity of Phillip's bombshell in recent days.
However, it seems that Holly won't be going anywhere without a fight.
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, a source said that Holly has no intentions of quitting This Morning, and hopes to 'ride out the scandal'.
The only way in which Holly would ever choose to leave the ITV programme is if the show itself was axed as a whole.
“Holly wants to stay at This Morning as long as she can, and hopes to ride out the scandal. Other stars like Stephen Mulhern are being approached to fill in for Phil when she returns. Some are reluctant to go in and face angry viewers," the source said.
“Holly is determined to stay put - the only reason she would leave now is if This Morning is axed. She has absolutely no plans to leave.”
Schofield, 61, stepped down from hosting the show just over a week ago, saying he wanted to protect its reputation amid reports of a feud with co-host Holly.
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Just one week later, Philip admitted his 'unwise but not illegal”'affair and departed ITV entirely before he was then fired by his management company YMU.
One source said he had 'lied point blank to staff at every level' about the affair - including his so-called best friend, Holly.
Phillip had previously said that he thinks of Holly as a sister, however it seems the This Morning host had distanced herself completely from Phil in recent weeks as many suspect she knew his downfall was about to come.
Holly remained tight-lipped on Phillip's statement about his affair for over 24 hours, but when she made her return to social media, she claimed that she knew nothing about his affair with the young showrunner.
Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Holly said that she felt 'deeply hurt' by Phillip's lies after she said that she had previously questioned him about the rumours, having got wind of them by others at ITV.
The This Morning star, 42, who is taking some time away from the show and is thought to be on holiday in the Algarve, released a statement on Saturday night addressing the growing controversy.
“It has taken some time to process yesterday’s news," Holly wrote.
"When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie," she added.
Following her statement, thousands of This Morning fans and social media users alike hit out at the ITV star, asking her to step down and call it quits on her This Morning reign.
If that wasn't enough, a number of celebrities, including Kim Woodburn, Katie Hopkins, Kerry Katona, and Eamonn Holmes, have all called for Holly to resign as they suggest she had to have known about Phillip's affair.
Kim Woodburn has hit out at the This Morning host as her future on the show hangs in the balance.
TV legend Kim has insisted that Holly has been tarnished by her friendship with Phillip and that she needs to quit the show too.
She had already hit out at the pair last week, branding Phil an 'obnoxious, horrible man, ' and Holly a 'two-faced b***h ' - and now she has lashed out again.
Speaking to GB News, Kim said: "The game's up. Everything's out about him. It's all been exposed. He's gone.
"Now, the only thing I'm praying and hoping is that young Miss Holly Willoughby has the common sense to go.”
“She cannot continue. You think of Phil, you think of Holly. All these years she's worked with him. She's heard him be rude in front of people.
"She's seen him on the sofa upsetting people. She’s never once pulled him up on it.
"She should’ve told him to stop.”
In another interview, while speaking to Gaydio, Kim shared that she 'didn’t feel sorry' for Schofield and thought he'd had the This Morning gig for 'too long'.
"Give it to somebody else who is nice and friendly. When somebody is rude and nasty and vicious, which he’s been with me, I can’t feel sorry for him," she insisted.
"He’s had 20-odd years of earning over £1 million a year. He’s had the job too long."
She also reiterated that she believes it's time for Holly, 42, to leave the daytime show, as she explained: "I don’t think she will have a choice. She isn’t as nice as she makes out."
Her outspoken outburst didn't stop there as she also added that Holly had 'plotted' to get rid of her ITV co-star: "When he is being rude to people she never once told him he was being nasty and she lets him do it and she aides and abets him.
"I think she should go, and I think she will go."
It comes as Nadine Dorries has also called for a probe into the complaints against Phillip Schofield, claiming that Holly Willoughby also has many questions to answer.
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg's show on the BBC, Nadine said: "The fact that Phillip Schofield has made a rather grovelling apology to the Daily Mail in the form of an email, there seems to be this understanding that, 'That's it now, everything will move on.'
"But it's not the case, I'm afraid, because what it actually does is open up more questions as to what happened.
"We know that there were complaints lodged with ITV over a long period of time. What happened to those complaints?
"I think the editor of the programme, Martin Frizell, has some questions to answer himself, and I'm afraid so does Holly Willoughby."
