Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were absent from This Morning on Friday, with Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary back to host, after viewers started to raise concerns for the duo's welfare, claiming Holly looked like she’d been crying off screen.
It’s now been a week since Holly and Phillip sparked queue jump accusations, when they were spotted entering Westminster Hall where the Queen’s body was lying in state. The hosts didn’t access the Hall via the same queue that many others, including David Beckham and Susanna Reid did, instead using media access to get in without the need to line up.
Screen grabs of them in the Hall, taken from the BBC’s live feed lit the touch paper on one ty of anger online, with This Morning’s statement denying any wrong doing doing little to suppress the social media furore.
READ MORE: This Morning's Phillip Schofield forced to intervene to halt Royal Family spat
Holly issued a very public denial of the allegations in a pre-recorded speech on Tuesday’s This Morning telling people she and Phillip "would never jump a queue" and then, as the row rumbled on and a petition was even set up to get her and Phillip sacked, viewers thought Holly looked tearful and puffy eyed at the start of Wednesday’s show, saying it looked ‘like she’d been crying all night.”
While criticism against the presenters is still ongoing, plenty of fans are also urging people to back off them a bit and ‘be kind.’
Holly and Phillip got a break from the spotlight on Friday when, for the first time in weeks, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, having joined Phillip and Holly for a special show in honour of the Queen last Monday, returned to their usual hosting slot.
The duo's return was confirmed when Lorraine Kelly cut to the This Morning studio at the end of her show on Friday to see Dermot and Alison on set as they teased what was coming up.
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