Holly and Phil open This Morning on Monday
Following a bombshell report that ITV’s dynamic duo Phillip Schofield, 61, and Holly Willoughby, 42, are “not as close as they used to be”, it seems the ITV presenting duo’s friendship hangs in the balance.
While the pair returned to screens this week to host This Morning, reports have been circulating that Holly is looking to pull the plug on their TV partnership.
On Monday, the stars managed to present the show with a smile, but many viewers spotted tension under the surface.
But what are Holly and Phil actually rowing about and when did it begin?
After first working together back in 2006, Holly and Phillip have been best friends ever since.
But despite appearing on the ITV daytime show together, reports surfaced the pair were “barely speaking” off camera.
According to The Sun, following the “Queue-gate” scandal last year, Holly made it clear to ITV bosses that she would continue to host the show even if Phil leaves.
It comes after the This Morning hosts faced backlash after thousands of mourners had to wait for up to 24 hours to pay their last respects to Her Majesty amid claims the presenters had skipped the queue.
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In a special pre-recorded message at the time, Holly and Phil said they “would never skip the queue” and were given special broadcast access.
Reports later suggested their friendship had “cooled off” in recent months.
Last week a source told The Sun that while they are “putting on smiles” for the show, there are “naturally some tensions”.
“This has been brewing quietly for some time”, the source told the publication: “But now it’s all out in the open and people are talking about it. There is no getting past it.”
Following these reports, Phillip released a statement to the same publication where he referred to Holly as his “best friend”.
It read: “As I have said before, Holly is my rock. We’re the best of friends — as always, she is an incredible support on screen, behind the scenes and on the phone.
“Holly has always been there for me, through thick and thin. And I’ve been there for her. The last few weeks haven’t been easy for either of us.”
After Phillip released a statement regarding his friendship with Holly, calling her his “rock”, sources claimed the mother-of-three was “blindsided” by the message which she knew nothing about.
Phil went on: “My family went through a real ordeal. Holly’s support throughout meant the world to me, as did the support of my bosses at ITV, my editor Martin Frizell and the whole This Morning family, including our amazing viewers. And of course Holly has herself been ill with shingles.”
He ended it with: “Whatever happens, we still have each other to count on.”
The statement, while appearing to confirm that all was well with the pair, was reportedly a surprise to Holly who is said to have known nothing about it.
Holly is yet to publicly comment on the pair’s relationship.
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