ITV bosses have hit back at Eamonn Holmes's criticism about the network and Phillip Schofield's departure from This Morning, claiming that he 'reaped the rewards' whilst he was at ITV.
Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield stepped down from hosting the ITV daytime show in May amid rumours of a feud between himself and Holly Willoughby.
Less than a week later, the 61-year-old announced that he would be resigning from ITV after his bombshell affair confession, reports the Mirror.
A storm of criticism followed the revelations including abuse from his former co-stars and the public - who all felt deceived.
One particular showbiz name, who has been vocal about Phillip's affair and ITV's handling of the situation, is Eamonn Holmes - Phil's former This Morning co-star.
As well as branding Phillip 'nasty' and a 'narcissist', Eamonn, 63, claimed that ITV bosses 'covered up' the affair that 'everyone knew about'.
Following the claims, ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall appeared in a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling after the father-of-two's exit from This Morning.
The chief executive faced questions from MPs on the This Morning row at a session of the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee.
On Wednesday, Carolyn sat in front of MPs alongside ITV managing director Kevin Lygo and general counsel and company secretary Kyla Mullins about the This Morning row.
Asked about former ITV talent, such as Eamonn Holmes, who spoke out in the wake of Schofield’s departure, Kevin Lygo said that such former presenters often feel they have a 'divine right' to stay on the network and in turn, hit out when things go wrong for others still there.
“It’s not surprising, is it, that when they go, they’re like, ‘Hate ITV, it’s awful.’ When the decade they were there, they were reaping the rewards and enjoying the job and everybody seemed to get on,” Kevin said.
The Northern Irish broadcaster has not been quiet following his former co-star's departure from the programme.
The GB news breakfast anchor has had a long-running feud with Phil - and following Phil's departure from This Morning, followed by his bombshell confession - Eamonn has scathingly criticised his former colleague in a series of rants.
Most recently, during Monday’s show on GB News, Eamonn launched into a furious tirade against the This Morning presenter, and invited people to get in touch if they had 'kissed Phillip Schofield'.
“I put it to anyone watching today that if you have kissed Phillip Schofield let us know. Let us see if that figure of one grows to the figure that I believe it is probably at,” Eamonn fumed.
“He’s admitted he is a liar. You should see the emails, the texts and the messages I’ve been sent over the past week. I think he’s getting off very very lucky,” the presenter added.
“Like everybody else he lied to me, I was happy to stand by him until I found out that he was lying... This isn’t about him being gay, not in the slightest,” Eamonn insisted.
However, fans called for him to stop making comments about Phil as one wrote: “I can’t believe people talk this way about another human being the way they do in this cowardly anonymous way, it’s still bullying.
“He has made a mistake and we are all allowed to be forgiven.”
“It’s disgusting and frightening the way he has spouted off,” another added, as they accused Eamonn of “being mad at ITV ”.
Today's parliament session with ITV bosses also covered ITV’s initial investigation into rumours regarding Schofield, the ITV-commissioned review into the facts by barrister Jane Mulcahy KC, the working culture on This Morning and other productions, as well as ITV’s use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and its whistleblowing policy.
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