Holly Willoughby was today forced to share a toe-curling live link with Ruth Langsford, whose husband Eamonn Holmes has been outspoken in his criticism of the This Morning host and her former friend Phillip Schofield.
Viewers cringed as Holly introduced the Loose Women host, who is reportedly still close to the young show runner with whom Schofield had an affair.
Holly, 42, sitting alongside Josie Gibson and US singer and honorary Queen frontman Adam Lambert who was a guest on the sofa, said: ‘Let’s find out what Loose Women are talking about today. Hi there, Ruth!’
Ruth, 63, replied: ‘Yeah, we love Adam Lambert, too!’, before blowing him kisses.
The exchange comes after Ruth’s husband Eamonn issued repeated and brutal criticisms of both Schofield and Holly in the wake of the scandal engulfing This Morning. He made allegations about a toxic culture on the show and said that the presenting pair ‘use’ people and should both have quit.
This morning a tearful Holly returned to the show after a two-week break. In a statement, she admitted she felt ‘shaken, troubled’ and ‘let down’ after her disgraced former co-host lied to her and ITV colleagues over his affair with the younger man who worked on the show.
But viewers hit out at the ‘melodramatic, scripted and soulless words’, which she read out while seemingly on the brink of tears alongside co-host Josie Gibson.
And just this morning on his GB News show, Eamonn called for ‘anyone watching today who has kissed Phillip Schofield, let us know’.
Gritted teeth: This Morning viewers noticed the awkward moment Holly Willoughby linked to Ruth Langsford live on air on Monday after her husband Eamonn Holmes issued brutal criticisms of both Holly and Phillip Schofield
Wide smiles: Holly, 42, sitting alongside Josie Gibson, said: ‘Let’s find out what Loose Women are talking about today. Hi there, Ruth!’
Tough time: Phillip Schofield spoke to the BBC’s Amol Rajan last week about his affair with a much younger colleague
Fans couldn’t help but notice the awkward interaction between Holly and Ruth
Eamonn, 63, said Holly and Phil were ‘actors’ and criticised Holly over her claim she was ‘sad’ Schofield was departing the show.
READ MORE: ‘All of us gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth’: ‘Shaken and troubled’ Holly Willoughby chokes back tears as she addresses Phillip Schofield scandal
He said last week on GB News: ‘Well, she wanted him not there, so what is she moaning about? Holly is being as false as he is and nobody is talking about the elephant in the room.’
Mimicking her, he continued: ‘Oh, the couch will not be the same without him being there.
‘They deserve each other. 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. I could give you a list of the lack of kindness and lack of awareness from both of them.’
Eamonn’s words had come after Holly first issued a statement about Phillip’s departure.
She spoke again about the fall-out with Phillip on Monday morning with an emotional monologue about her former best friend.
She said it ‘feels very strange indeed’ to be on the show without Phillip, adding that the team ‘gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth’.
Eamonn launched a fresh attack on Phillip again on Monday, insisting he doesn’t believe the former ITV star’s claim that he has made ‘one mistake’ in his 40-year career.
In a bombshell interview last week, Phillip said he believed his career was over and he had ‘lost everything’ after admitting he lied about his relationship with the young man.
Opinionated: Eamonn, 63, called Holly and Phil ‘actors’ and criticised Holly over her claim she was ‘sad’ Schofield was departing the show
Civil: Ruth could be seen gritting her teeth throughout the moment but remained professional throughout
‘Bring it in!’: Josie Gibson showed her support for emotional Holly earlier after she addressed the Schofield scandal for the first time live on air
Tears: Holly looked visibly emotional as she addressed the cameras with a monologue about her former best friend Phillip
Speaking on his GB News programme today, Phillip’s former colleague Eamonn called for ‘anyone watching today who has kissed Phillip Schofield, let us know’.
He added: ‘He said in his 40-odd years of broadcasting that he’s made one mistake, he had one kiss that he shouldn’t have had.
‘I put it to anyone watching today that if you have kissed Phillip Schofield let us know. Let us see if that figure of one grows to the figure that I believe it is probably at.’
Elsewhere on the show, Eamonn said: ‘We’re not supposed to criticise him in case he harms himself but he still thinks he can go on and say lies, lies, lies.
‘He’s admitted he is a liar. You should see the emails, the texts and the messages I’ve been sent over the past week. I think he’s getting off very very lucky.
‘Like everybody else he lied to me, I was happy to stand by him until I found out that he was lying… This isn’t about him being gay, not in the slightest.’
Eamonn also criticised former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson for defending Phillip over the weekend, saying: ‘Clarkson didn’t work there, what does he know?’
In last week’s interviews, Phillip, who was dropped by ITV and his talent agency YMU after his admission to the Mail about the ‘unwise but not illegal relationship’, said he was ‘utterly broken and ashamed’.
Schofield told the BBC that the young man, who worked as a runner for a short period on This Morning, was 20 when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him.
He told The Sun they were friends and then in 2017 – three years before he came out as gay – ‘something happened that just changed it’.
The former presenter said there was ‘a consensual moment’ in his dressing room after a show and ‘it was mutual’.
He added that he did not have a ‘love affair’ with the man and ‘it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends, we were mates’.
He added: ‘I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.’ The pair had ‘five or six romantic encounters’ over a period of around six months.
Support: Holly and Josie held hands before hugging one another during the difficult opener on This Morning
Handover: Holly appeared in a videolink on Lorraine today before the show with Josie Gibson
On her way: Holly arrived to film This Morning at Television Centre in White City ahead of the show
The calm before the storm: Phillip and Holly on the sofa of ITV’s This Morning last month, on May 11
Family: Phillip with his wife Stephanie Lowe and daughters Molly and Ruby in London in 2018
Living by it: Holly posted a snap of the ‘Strawberry Moon’ on her wellness page Wylde Moon alongside words urging others to ‘maintain a positive perspective’
Fall out: Phillip has already apologised to Holly, who presented This Morning with him for 14 years, for lying about his secret relationship with his colleague (centre) and for tainting her public image
Holly was back on the sofa on Monday for the first time since his departure on May 26.
Holly said: ‘Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you OK? I hope so.’
She stated it ‘feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil and I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have. Shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions’.
‘All of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process’.
She added: ‘It’s equally hard to see the toll it’s taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone.
‘I hope that as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that the show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.
‘And from the heart, can I just say thank you for all your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison, Craig and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every day.’
She was hugged by Josie who added they were working on keeping the show a ‘family’, with tearful Holly then concluding: ‘Exactly’, before the show got down to business as usual.
Minutes earlier, Holly had appeared in a videolink on Lorraine before the show to talk about what was coming up, as controversy in the wake of Phillip’s exit continued.
Friends of Phillip had already said the star would not tune in to watch Holly’s return to the sofa as it would be too ‘triggering’ for him, especially the opening credits.
It comes after Phillip said he ‘didn’t tell anybody’ about his affair with his former This Morning colleague, confirming in a tell-all interview with BBC’s Amol Rajan that Willoughby ‘did not know’.
Similarly, in his interview with The Sun, the 61-year-old presenter apologised to Holly for lying to her about his relationship, saying: ‘I’ve lost my best friend.’
He added: ‘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.’
The duo, who had presented the show together since 2009 and also co-hosted Dancing On Ice before Schofield resigned from ITV, had been open about their close friendship over the years.
Holly’s return comes as the ITV show has been plagued by allegations of ‘toxicity’, including from former This Morning presenter Eamonn who has alleged there was a ‘total cover-up’ over the Schofield affair.
The show’s former resident doctor, Dr Ranj Singh, also hit out at a ‘toxic’ culture, saying he raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ two years ago when he worked there and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing.
In a letter from ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall to Parliament on Wednesday, she said an external review conducted following a complaint made by Dr Ranj found ‘no evidence of bullying or discrimination’.
Meanwhile, former This Morning head of news Emily Maddick, who worked on the show from September to December 2019, claimed she quit the programme due to ‘bullying, sexism and a toxic culture of fear and intimidation’.
On Saturday, This Morning editor Martin Frizell told a Sky News reporter to ‘read between the lines’ amid claims of toxicity, adding: ‘I think there’s some scores being settled.’
Dame Carolyn has been called to a parliamentary committee on June 14 to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling following Schofield’s exit.
Last Wednesday, she confirmed the broadcaster had instructed barrister Jane Mulcahy KC of Blackstone Chambers to carry out an external review of the facts.
There will be no return to the show for Phillip, who told last week he fears he will be spat on in the street if he leaves his house amid the fallout from his affair, which happened while he was still married.
He told The Sun: ‘I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door. I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, “It will get better”. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.
‘You watch all these layers of you slide away and slide away and slide away. The things that were dear to you. But I deserve it. It’s my fault. I deserve it.’
Phillip said he had never previously suffered abuse on the street, but asked about the prospect of being hit with it if he goes outside: ‘Are they spitting on me because I had an affair at work and lied about it?’
He added he was being supported by his daughters Molly, 30, and Ruby, 27, who he had with his wife of 30 years Stephanie Lowe years before he publicly came out as gay on This Morning in February 2020.
Phillip has also insisted he had not groomed his lover, who he first got in contact with when he was aged 15.
The former host was pictured with his mother on Friday, May 19, after he received the bad news from ITV.
He and his mother had driven from her home to their favourite fish and chip shop before heading out to Pentire Headland where they looked out over the sea, The Sun reports.
The presenter, who hosted This Morning since 2002, had been in the seaside town to support his mother as his brother, Timothy, was being sentenced for sex offences against a teenage boy.
The same day her youngest son was jailed for 12 years, Pat was told by her eldest child that he was losing his job.
While getting fish and chips with his mother, Schofield received a phone call from his manager telling him bosses at the channel wanted him to leave the show.
In an interview with The Sun last week, Phillip said: ‘I had to go down to Cornwall to be with [my mother] for the sentencing.
‘And our family thing was always to buy fish and chips and go and sit on the headland.
‘I picked my mum up and she went in to get the fish and chips — and while she was getting them, my phone rang.
‘It was my then manager saying, “Mate, I am so sorry, it has become too loud for ITV. You will have to step down from This Morning”.
‘And she arrived in the car. She said to me before I arrived, “You’re not coming down with any bad news, are you?”.
‘She sat in the car and she was all happy to see me, and then she said, “Oh, your face has changed”.
‘I said, “Let’s go on to the headland”. And I had to tell her.’
The furore which has surrounded Phillip has threatened to engulf This Morning, with ITV getting set to introduce ‘heavy vetting’ of public callers to protect presenters from outbursts over the scandal.
Production staff will take on the important role of screening callers, and audience interaction segments are also to be paused to avoid any abuse being sent towards presenters.
This Morning viewers notice awkward moment Holly links to Ruth
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