Holly Willoughby was amused to learn what happened to her TRIC Award after she was forced to skip the ceremony.
The This Morning host was honoured with the trophy for Best TV Personality at the industry, but was not present at the bash after taking the day off from her presenting duties to attend her grandmother’s funeral.
Her colleagues on the ITV show accepted the award, but Willoughby is yet to be reunited with the trophy, as her team “can’t actually find” it.
Her presenting partner Phillip Schofield alluded to the mishap in the opening segment of today’s show.
“Before we start I’ve got to say congratulations to Holly,” he said, prompting Willoughby to describe the honour as “a lovely, lovely thing to win.”
“There’s a bit of a problem,” he continued. “You couldn’t be there to pick it up… we can’t actually find the award.”
He went on to claim that Eamonn Holmes had passed the trophy onto the show’s editor, before it disappeared.
“Sources close to this show say that Eamonn gave the award to our editor Martin,” Schofield explained.
“He thought that one of our team had it, so if anyone has seen Holly’s TRIC Award, pop it in the post. There’s a possibility that the last time it was seen was in a Macdonalds.”
Willoughby then described the trophy before begging her colleagues – and viewers – to keep their eyes peeled for the award.
“I’m assuming it’s got my name on it, and it’s gold and it looks a bit like a giant bottle opener,” she said. “So if you’ve seen anything like that send it back because I’d quite like it.”
Later in the show, the pair were presented with a fresh lead in the mystery, as they showed viewers photos of the This Morning doctors Zoe Williams and Ranj Singh brandishing the trophy.
“Apparently Zoe, Dr Zoe has last been seen with it – if that’s not the look of a guilty doctor, but not only her,” Willoughby said, before the cameras zoomed in on a photo of Singh with the missing item.
“Who would have thought that the doctors would have got it?” she asked, before Schofield gently berated his colleagues for the mix-up.
“I’m so shocked,” he said. “You’ve let yourselves down, you’ve let us down, you’ve let the award down.”
Willoughby beat last year’s winners Ant and Dec and her Celebrity Juice co-star Keith Lemon to the TV Personality gong at yesterday’s ceremony, which was held at Grosvenor House.
This Morning airs on ITV, weekdays at 10.30am
