Holly Willoughby will return to host This Morning on Monday alongside Josie Gibson as the ITV show continues to face controversy in the wake of Phillip Schofield’s departure following his affair revelation.
Willoughby has been on a two week half-term break having taken an early holiday around the time news of her former co-host’s departure emerged and has this week been pictured on holiday in Portugal with her family.
It was confirmed at the end of Friday’s episode of This Morning, which was hosted by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, that Gibson will be filling in on the sofa.
Gibson, who won the 2010 series of Big Brother, joined the ITV show in 2019 and has co-hosted on a number of occasions as a relief presenter.
It comes after Schofield said he “didn’t tell anybody” about his affair with his former This Morning colleague and that his ex co-host Willoughby “did not know” in a tell-all interview with BBC’s Amol Rajan.
The duo, who presented the show together since 2009 and also co-hosted ITV’s Dancing On Ice before Schofield resigned from ITV, had been open about their close friendship over the years including going on holiday together.
Schofield has been speaking about the affair he had with a younger male colleague for the first time since he left the broadcaster last week.
Asked by the BBC’s Rajan whether he told Willoughby, he said: “No, oh god, no, that’s a bigger question because our make-up room was like a sanctuary so you tell everything in that room.
“Holly knows everything about me, I know everything about Holly…. Holly did not know. Nobody knew. I didn’t tell anybody.”
Asked about who on his team knew about the relationship, the presenter said: “Nobody 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.”
The 61-year-old presenter apologised to Willoughby for lying to her about his relationship when he spoke to The Sun.
He 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.”
Schofield said his friendship with his former co-presenter did not break down following their visit to the late Queen’s lying-in-state, but after his brother, Timothy, was jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a boy.
Speaking of the queue-skipping incident, Schofield told The Sun: “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 butcher’s 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.”
ITV’s chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall had said last year that the pair had been “misrepresented” over the issue and stressed they had been attending as members of the media to film a segment for This Morning.
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