Holly Willoughby couldn’t believe her luck when she landed her job on ITV’s This Morning.
“I almost fainted,” she told me a week before she started Britain’s most prestigious daytime show in September 2009. ‘I was in shock, I didn’t see it coming. It’s the best TV job ever.
“There were so many other very talented presenters on the roster, so I never thought I would have a chance.”
She had Phillip Schofield to thank for this opportunity – something she was acutely aware of.
They have been hosting Dancing On Ice together since 2006. He liked Holly, enjoyed working with her and pushed her to get the job.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on this morning. The pair presented the show together for 21 years before falling out
Schofield appeared in Cast Away, a three-episode Channel 5 series in which he is stranded on a remote island for ten days
But insiders also speculate that he lobbied for her because in his eyes the bubbly former children’s television presenter would never jeopardize his position as number one.
“Phil thought he would always be the star with Holly as his beautiful wingwoman,” a This Morning insider recalled. “He would always be king, he never thought he would lose his power.”
Today, however, things could not have turned out differently. He’s unemployed, she’s in high demand, and he doesn’t like that at all.
So it’s perhaps understandable that Holly – as well as her ITV colleagues past and present – are fearful of what Phil will do next after a week in which his ‘friends’ have reportedly leaked stories about her and other former colleagues in which that happened. claimed she “brought him down.”
Schofield sent the message on WhatsApp in May last year – just before he resigned after finally admitting his affair with a much younger male colleague. He blamed Holly for not publicly supporting him, amid reports that a row had erupted in the wake of his brother’s guilty plea to abusing a boy in April.
Presenter Eamonn Holmes is also in Schofield’s line of fire
Those close to Schofield have also said that he privately calls her the “witch.”
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were also in his line of fire, with sources close to Schofield revealing that ITV fired the now estranged couple from This Morning not only because of the low ratings, but also because of the way Holmes looked when he the show food ate.
Schofield is back in the public eye after appearing on Channel 5 reality show Cast Away, in which he appears to have relished the opportunity to air his grievances against former colleagues while stranded on a desert island.
As a senior ITV manager said to me this week: ‘Gosh, Phil’s been busy, hasn’t he!’
On Cast Away, Schofield referred to “three s**** from showbiz.” One is believed to be Holly, 43, another This Morning editor Martin Frizell and the third ITV’s head of daytime Emma Gormley, who has always held Holly in high regard.
“Phil seems to be seeing his time in the sun as an opportunity to attack everyone he hates,” says a source familiar with his and Holly’s friendship.
‘What will he come out with now? Holly has had a terrible year and this is the last thing she needs, months after someone was locked up for life for planning to kidnap, rape and murder her.”
There has been a long feud between Schofield and Ruth and Eamonn. The feud between the pair dates back to 2019, when Ruth filed an official internal complaint against Schofield
In July, security guard Gavin Plumb was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison for plotting a “home invasion” of Willoughby’s property, during which he planned to tie her up and rape her in front of her family before killing her and disposing of her body . an abandoned building on the outskirts of London.
The source added: “The worry is that Phil could pop up at any moment with his next tirade of hate.
Publicly, Holly has kept a dignified silence about the latest stories. The worry, friends say, is that Phil thinks Holly started this fight and will continue to find ways to get revenge.
Sure, he seems to have gotten jealous of the attention Holly was getting.
In 2019, they did a joint interview with The Sunday Times Magazine. The cover featured a fake crown on Holly’s head – not Phil’s. The headline read ‘Queen Holly’.
Apparently he was so furious that ITV bosses contacted the publication asking for an apology to Phil.
“It was never the same,” my source says. ‘They should never have done that interview, it was always going to blow up between them. It was at the point that Holly catapulted above him [in the public eye]and he didn’t like that.
‘Getting ITV to apologize was his way of asserting his power. That period was very difficult for everyone involved at This Morning.’
Then there is the long feud between Schofield and Ruth and Eamonn.
The feud between the pair dates back to 2019, when Ruth filed an official internal complaint against Schofield.
While working on ITV’s Loose Women, she was rejected by Schofield when she was interrupted mid-link while explaining what was going on on the show during a segment on This Morning.
Following Team Phil’s briefings on them this week, friends of the couple – who split earlier this year – contacted me to say Schofield had also been ‘completely jealous’ of Eamonn.
One thing that particularly annoyed him, they said, was that the Irish broadcaster was awarded an OBE in 2018. Schofield has no such honor. The This Morning team were thrilled for him – Eamonn was super popular with his colleagues at the time – and they wanted to celebrate on TV with a segment on his big day at Buckingham Palace, where he was presented with his honor by the late Queen.
When Schofield got wind of these plans, attempts were made to stop it and ‘it all started’.
Amanda Holden fell out with Schofield when she couldn’t replace Holly during her absence from hosting I’m a Celebrity in 2018
Luckily for everyone involved, Eamonn received his gong on Friday, the day he and Ruth usually presented the show.
Their good friend Rylan Clark stepped in as host in their absence, alongside Amanda Holden, who had also fallen out with Schofield.
Rylan and Amanda were both excited about Eamonn’s prestigious award to mark 40 years as one of Britain’s top broadcasters before chatting to the couple outside Buckingham Palace during a live link.
The segment was a real smile-filled celebration, with the couple also pointing out how happy the Queen seemed to present him with the award.
“This Morning bosses avoided the huge headache that arose on a day when Phil and Holly were presenting,” the source said. “There were a lot of ‘Oh wasn’t it lucky it fell on a Friday?’ because it meant Schofield couldn’t go crazy.
“Phil had and still has no honor. There was always the feeling that Phil was jealous of Eamonn’s background as a journalist and news presenter, which he wasn’t; his early days were in a broom closet with the puppet Gordon the Gopher.”
Unlike many This Morning and ITV bosses over the years, Eamonn refused to bow down to Phil. Perhaps this is why Phil’s friends also said this week that the This Morning crew didn’t like Eamonn – another lie, I’m sure.
After speaking with several former employees, it seems the opposite had happened.
“There have been reports this week that the This Morning crew didn’t like Eamonn, which is simply not true,” said an insider. While another added: ‘The staff behind the scenes all loved working with Ruth and Eamonn on Friday. It was a completely different atmosphere on set.
‘Phil used the commercial breaks to go on his phone, he sat in silence but Eamonn and Ruth chatted to the crew and were always happy to record special video messages for their family and friends, whether it was a birthday or a wedding . They were always there for you and nothing was too much.
‘They also took the crew to the pub at the end of half term and summer weeks when they had cover. They were both very generous and the crew loved them.”
A former regular on This Morning added: ‘Phil would never even acknowledge me until the segment actually started. There were no pleasantries or friendly hellos. The atmosphere was very different as others presented.
‘It was so much more relaxed and friendly then. You felt the difference on set. Phil was very much in charge and set the tone for the show.”
Another person apparently in Schofield’s firing line is Amanda Holden, who fell out with him when she couldn’t replace Holly during her absence from hosting I’m a Celebrity in 2018. Amanda was tipped for the job, but The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes was hired instead.
Amanda has made no secret of the fact that she blamed Schofield.
This week, one of his ‘friends’ accused her of ‘bitter and public revenge’ and said he was angry at being on Amanda’s ‘most hated list’.
They said: ‘People always go looking for jobs that they don’t get, but she took a bitter and public revenge. It was all part of a horrible communication mix-up and not part of what was presented. Amanda had lunch with an ITV boss who said afterwards he was sure she could get the gig. But Rochelle had already been approached and her agenda cleared.’
“What nonsense,” a source close to Amanda responded. ‘He had some power at the time and ITV did what he wanted.
“Amanda’s career is going great, Phil not so much – and that’s called karma.”
It appears that his 15-minute comeback fame of Cast Away has not helped his rehabilitation and may instead hinder it.