Phillip Schofield has recalled how he and Holly Willoughby banded together in the face of their infamous 'queue-gate' scandal months before their friendship fell apart for good.
Following the death of the Queen last year, Holly and Phil were accused of 'jumping' the queue that was packed with mourners waiting to pay respects at the monarch's lying-in-state.
The This Morning stars claimed they had been given special permission to cut the line, which had a wait time of more than 24 hours, as they were members of the press.
Their protestations did not stop angry viewers for slamming their actions as 'selfish' and 'entitled' at the time.
In the wake of his most recent scandal - his extra-marital affair coming to light - Phillip has reflected on how he and Holly supported each other through 'queue-gate.'
He said: "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.
“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.”
He added: “We were texting each other backwards and forwards afterwards. I said to Holly, ‘I knew I should have gone with my gut,’ and she said, ‘I know’.
“But we were shell-shocked, the both of us, completely shell-shocked by the reaction.
“What are the two things you don’t screw up? The Queen and a queue," he said over their joint dismay.
Phil said his friendship with Holly managed to survive the criticism, only to fall apart for good months later after his brother Timothy was jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a boy.
Holly then publicly hit out at Phil as she claimed he had blindsided with her news of his affair.
The presenter said she had asked him directly about rumours he had romantic relations with a younger colleague and he 'lied' to her.
Speaking on her fury, Phillip said: “I’ve lost my best friend. I let her (Holly) down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
“Holly did not know (about the affair) 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.”
He later added to the BBC, when asked, “Who knew on the team?” that “To my knowledge, I mean, somebody has to know something for there to be a rumour later on. I didn’t believe that anybody knew.”
