Holly Willoughby's This Morning absence has stretched into its second week as she was still missing from Monday's show.
Phillip Schofield was once again joined by Josie Gibson as they started a fresh week on the ITV daytime show. The 36-year-old presented the show for three days last week in Holly's absence.
Phil, 59, was then joined by Alison Hammond on Thursday before Alison returned alongside her usual co-host Dermot O'Leary on Friday.
Fans may have expected Holly, 41, to return to the show today (March 21) after being forced off Dancing On Ice during the semi-finals earlier this month when she tested positive for coronavirus hours before the show went live on air.
After missing all her hosting duties for the week, speaking on Thursday (March 17), Phillip said Holly was "still taking care of herself" and a day earlier he said she was "fine" but "annoyed" at the situation she has found herself in weeks after Phillip himself had to take time off after contracting the virus.
But as viewers tuned into This Morning today (March 21), there was still no Holly and Josie was back to take the reins alongside Phillip once again.
Giving an update, Phillip said at the start of the show: "Welcome to Monday's This Morning... Josie is back." He then added: "Been texting Holly all through the weekend and she's absolutely fine she just has that incredibly persistent and annoying red line that won't go away," referring to that on a Lateral Flow Test.
"So she'll be sitting at home. It's driving her crazy," the presenter added before turning to his co-host and saying: "But it's lovely to see you."
"And you too Phil," Josie replied. "Thanks for having me. We do have a laugh don't we?" to which her co-star agreed before launching into a discussion they had before the cameras started rolling at 10am.
"There's been a major discussion before the show came on air that when we sit at the breakfast bar, we're both the same height, but you're taller when we sit down," Phillip said.
"Got a longer torso you see," Josie replied before Phillip got her to take her heels off to prove they're the same height before she popped her shoes back on.
"That's alright," Phil said. "I don't understand what's happening at the breakfast bar. But Alex, our floor manager today said, 'Well Phil, maybe you've just got a short body'," which prompted a ripple of laughter throughout the crew behind the camera.
"But lovely long legs," Josie prompted as a voice could barely be heard speaking. "Shut up now, you've said enough," Phillip then laughed looking beyond the cameras before moving on with the show.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Holly took to Instagram to share a selfie with fans after being stricken with Covid.
The mum-of-three posted a picture of herself to her millions of Instagram followers of her soaking up the sun in the garden on Saturday morning (March 19). She posed without makeup as she closed her eyes to embrace the spring weather change.
It came after Holly broke her social media silence on Friday (March 18) after her positive test result to share a post about her latest monthly Wylde Moon project. Wylde Moon is Holly's lifestyle website she launched last year which explores topics from 'beauty and fashion, to energy and healing'.'
She shared the cover of March's version of The Edition which featured a heartbreaking picture of a baby reaching his hand to what appears to be his father's on a train out of war-torn Ukraine which left her followers with 'goosebumps'.
