Holly Willoughby says she feels ‘let down’ as she returns to This Morning for first time since Schofield scandal
Holly Willoughby has said she felt “let down” as she made her first This Morning appearance since her former co-presenter Phillip Schofield resigned over an “unwise, but not illegal” relationship with a younger man.
As she returned to screens after two weeks away, she said she felt “shaken, troubled, let down” and “worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on”.
Schofield and Willoughby presented This Morning together for 14 years
“We have given our love and support to someone not telling the truth,” she added.
Schofield, 61, resigned from ITV last month over the affair and has since insisted he “did not” groom the man, who also worked on the show, and who the presenter said was 20 years old when their relationship began.
Willoughby, 42, began the show with the emotional statement delivered straight to camera, while holding hands with co-presenter Josie Gibson.
She began with the words, “Right, deep breath,” and went on to say: “It feels very strange sitting here without Phil.”
She acknowledged that viewers would be “full of questions,” adding: “You, me and 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 that they had to resign from ITV, and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.”
While she did not mention Schofield again by name, she directed one more point towards him, continuing: “And it’s equally hard to see the toll that 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.”
Looking ahead to a “new chapter” for the show, she said she hoped “we can find strength in each other” and thanked viewers for their support, “from my heart”.
Following her statement, Gibson reached across and gave her a big hug, saying: “All we can do now is be the family that we are.”
Read more:
Holly Willoughby’s This Morning statement in full
Phillip Schofield: Timeline of ITV departure
Willoughby also mentioned other members of the This Morning team, Dermot O’Leary, Alison Hammond, and Craig Doyle – who is understood to be co-presenting alongside her on Tuesday.
Willoughby’s return to the show comes after she hit out at her former co-host and accused him of lying to her over his affair.
In a statement last week she said: “When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not.
“It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie.”
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Schofield’s lawyer’s role ‘to get truth out’
Speaking to Sky News outside the High Court following Willoughby’s statement, Schofield’s lawyer Jonathan Coad, described the recent media attention around the presenter and his departure from the show, and clarified the part he plays in representing Schofield.
Mr Coad told Sky News: “My role was very simple, and that’s to get the truth out on Phillip’s behalf. There has been an awful lot of bad stuff about Phillip in the media which isn’t true, which I know because I’ve had access to all the relevant information.
“So, that’s the limit of it, getting the truth out and trying to knock out as much of the stuff which isn’t true as possible.”
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This Morning editor Martin Frizell is questioned about the show
Schofield has given two interviews since leaving ITV – one to the BBC and one to The Sun newspaper. In both, he insisted Willoughby did not know about the affair.
He also said he had messaged his former co-presenter since the fallout from his departure, but said she did not reply.
Schofield’s affair took place while the television star was still married to wife Stephanie Lowe, and before he came out publicly as gay in 2020.
He had denied having a relationship with a colleague when questioned by ITV about rumours in early 2020.
ITV has since announced an external review of the saga led by a barrister.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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