Phillip Schofield has revealed what really brought his close friendship with Holly Willoughby to an end.
In an explosive tell-all interview with the Sun last night, the former This Morning host opened up on the demise of his partnership with his colleague and good pal, who he worked with for more than a decade, spending family holidays together, but now the pair no longer speak.
Some fans thought the tensions began with the 'Queuegate' scandal after the Queen's death.
Phillip and Holly faced major backlash when they appeared to "jump the queue" for the Queen lying in state ahead of her funeral in September. But it was actually the conviction of his brother Timothy Schofield that really drove a wedge through their friendship once and for all.
Phillip has now said that he always knew the furore surrounding their position in the queue would hang over him forever, and has insisted he knew it was a bad idea.
He said: "I don’t ever throw anyone under the bus, but I have a very good instinct for these things and I knew it was a bad thing to do. But there is no reason that the justification that was given to me, shouldn’t have been true."
He added: "“There was no jumping of the queue. We went and spoke to everyone in the queue. We went out and met everyone in the queue then walked all the way around the building, and went into the press centre with your accreditation.
"That got messed up because the production team didn’t want to give either of our emails out, so they used work emails which obviously didn’t match up with who we are
"So we are forever now (associated)… it doesn’t matter now because I’m not going to go out any more … but forever now, you go to the butchers and someone says, ‘Oh do you want to (skip ahead)...?’ ‘No, no, I’ll stand here.’ I’m serious."
But Phillip says it was his paedophile brother Timothy's conviction that brought an end to his and Holly's friendship.
As we reported earlier, he issued a grovelling apology to his former co-star, who he said did not know about the relationship with the younger colleague, and who he described as his "best friend" who he had lost, but he insisted there had been no major "feud".
He told the Sun: "Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you’.
“She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply, as well. So yeah. If anyone is in any way linking Holly to this; that is absolutely, wholly untrue."
Phillip resigned from This Morning after reports emerged that he and Holly were 'barely speaking', before confessing to the affair at a later date. Speaking on his relationship with Holly, he said: “I had no feud with Holly. She is my TV sister.
"But quite rightly, when I am in the middle of a s**t show with bad press over something where I have done nothing wrong — in fact, I did everything right — it’s a witch hunt. And that strips that (friendship) away.
“Quite rightly, she is going to take a step back and think, ‘I have to step back from this’, and I understand that completely.
He added: “As we see now, this is a vicious game and the last thing you want is for something to stick on you. It was becoming bigger than the people we had on the show. I understand that.”
Phillip also told the Sun that the relationship with the runner, which he admitted to last Friday before he sensationally stepped down from ITV and was dropped by his talent agency YMU, started after a "consensual moment" in his dressing room in 2017. Phillip was adamant that he did "not groom" the young man.
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