Eamonn Holmes has taken a fresh swipe at his former This Morning colleagues after it was confirmed Phillip Schofield was leaving the show.
Schofield announced on Saturday that he was stepping down from presenting the ITV talk show with “immediate effect” after more than 20 years on the programme. It followed weeks of rumours of a falling-out with co-host Holly Willoughby, 41.
During the newspaper review on his GB News breakfast show, Holmes launched into a tirade about the pair after his co-host Isabel Webster noted Schofield was “stepping down” from the award-winning daytime show.
He said: “Oh please just stop this. He was sacked. All this nonsense of ‘I’ve decided to step down’. I’m sure you did - here’s your P45 now step down.”
Holmes went on: “And she says: ‘Oh, the couch will not be the same without him being there’ well she wanted him not there. So, what is she moaning about. They deserve each other I suppose.
“Holly is being as false as he is, and nobody is talking about the elephant in the room.
“She says, ‘I thank him for all his knowledge, experience and humour’. All the things that she didn’t have when she came to the show. Well, it’s true! I would call that stabbing in the back,” he continued.
“I could give you a list of the lack of kindness and lack of awareness from both of them. How they would socialise, and the people around them. You just have to look at my phone, full of people who are glad to see the back of the two of them.”
The Standard has contacted representatives for Schofield and Willoughby for comment.
In the wake of the fallout, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary are helming the show after Schofield’s exit left the ITV morning stalwart in turmoil.
The pair paid tribute to Schofield on Monday’s show after he dramatically stepped down following weeks of speculation about his relationship with co-host Willoughby.
Hammond and O’Leary wished Schofield a “huge thank you”, on behalf of the This Morning team and ITV, for his contribution to the show “for the past 21 years.”
“We all know he’s one of the best live television broadcasters this country has ever had.”
“We wish him all the best for the future,” Hammond said.
O’Leary said of Schofield: “Everyone on and off screen at ITV and This Morning want to say a huge thank you to Phil for what he’s done to make the show such a success over the last 21 years.”
Reports suggest he received six months’ pay to sweeten the departure - but that despite this, he feels “let down” by ITV and the way the saga has played out.
A source told The Mail: “Phil feels he has been shown zero respect and he is devastated by how this has played out.
“He thinks the way he was forced to step down was so unjust and he feels completely broken by how this situation has been handled.”
His departure comes after he has faced months of controversy including reports of a rift with his long-time co-host Willoughby, his brother’s sex abuse trial and furore over his visit to the late Queen’s lying in state.
Piers Morgan said he has “sympathy” with Schofield, who he believed was entitled to a “better send-off” from This Morning.
Former ITV broadcaster Morgan, who famously stormed off Good Morning Britain in 2021 and then subsequently left the show, spoke on Monday about Schofield’s departure from the show.
“I think that anyone who thinks that daytime telly is full of smiley, nicey happy clappy people, I think they are beginning to realise it is infested by a pack of savages,” he told co-presenters Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell on Times Radio.
He continued: “There is nothing more ruthless than the way that talent, as we so laughably get called in television, get treated when the plug gets pulled.
“So I have some sympathy with Phillip Schofield, who actually I do think after 20-odd years on This Morning, winning awards every year, doing great, I think whatever has gone on behind the scenes I think he was entitled to a better send-off.
“But then, I thought I was too at Good Morning Britain for breaking all the ratings records and making the show the most talked-about show in the country - but that’s showbiz.
“And showbiz is a shallow pool of shark-infested waters where, unfortunately, as my grandmother always used to say to me, ‘one day you’re cock of the walk and the next you’re a feather duster’.”
He later added: “There’s life after ITV, I wouldn’t worry too much, it can be a very nice life after ITV - but I do think he deserved a better send off than the one he got, but I’m afraid that’s the way it goes.”
