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 on Britain’s most prestigious daytime show in September 2009. ‘I was in shock, I didn’t see it coming. It’s the best telly job ever.
‘There were so many other very, very talented presenters in the frame so I never thought I would have a chance.’
She had Phillip Schofield to thank for the opportunity – something she was well aware of.
They’d been hosting Dancing On Ice together since 2006. He liked Holly and liked working with her and pushed for 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 on Cast Away, a three-episode Channel 5 series where 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 threaten his position as the number one.
‘Phil thought he would always be the star with Holly as his pretty wing woman,’ recalls a This Morning insider. ‘He would always be king, he never thought he would lose his power.’
Today, however, things couldn’t have turned out more differently. He is jobless, she’s in demand – and he doesn’t like it one bit.
So it is perhaps understandable that Holly – and indeed her ITV colleagues past and present – fear just what Phil will do next after a week in which his ‘friends’ are rumoured to have have leaked stories about her and other former colleagues in which it was claimed that she had ‘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 backing him amid reports they had fallen out in the aftermath of his brother being found guilty of abusing a boy in April.
Presenter Eamonn Holmes has also found himself in Schofield’s firing line
Those close to Schofield have also said that privately he calls her the ‘witch’.
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford have also found themselves in his firing line, with sources close to Schofield revealing that ITV sacked the now estranged couple from This Morning not only because of low ratings but also because of how Holmes looked when he ate food on show.
Schofield is back in the public eye after appearing on Channel 5 reality show Cast Away, in which he seems to have relished the opportunity to air his grievances against former colleagues while he was stranded on a desert island.
As one senior ITV executive put it to me this week: ‘Blimey, Phil has been busy, hasn’t he!’
On Cast Away, Schofield referred to ‘three s**** of showbiz.’ One is thought 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 sunshine as a chance to have a go at anyone he hates,’ says a source familiar with his and Holly’s friendship.
‘What will he come out with next? Holly has had the year from hell 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-running spat between Schofield and Ruth and Eamonn. The pair’s feud dates to 2019 when Ruth filed an official internal complaint against Schofield
In July, security guard Gavin Plumb was jailed for a minimum of 16 years for plotting a ‘home invasion’ of Willoughby’s property, where he planned to tie her up and rape her in front of her family before murdering her and disposing of her body in an abandoned building on the outskirts of London.
The source adds: ‘The worry is that Phil is going to pop up at any second with his next tirade of hate.
In public, Holly has kept a dignified silence about the latest stories. The worry, say friends, is that Phil thinks Holly started this row and will continue to find ways to get revenge.
Certainly, he appears to have become jealous of the attention Holly was getting.
Back in 2019, they did a joint interview with The Sunday Times Magazine. On the cover it featured a mocked up crown on Holly’s head – not Phil’s. The headline read ‘Queen Holly’.
Apparently he was so furious that ITV bosses contacted the publication and asked that they apologise to Phil.
‘Things were never the same again,’ says my source. ‘They should never have done that interview, it was always going to blow up between them. It was at the point Holly catapulted above him [in the public eye], and he didn’t like it.
‘Getting ITV to ask for an apology was his way of asserting his power. That period of time was very hard for all involved with This Morning.’
Then there is the long-running spat between Schofield and Ruth and Eamonn.
The pair’s feud dates to 2019 when Ruth filed an official internal complaint against Schofield.
While working on ITV’s Loose Women, she had been snubbed by Schofield when she was cut off mid-link while explaining what was coming up on the show during a segment on This Morning.
Following Team Phil’s briefings about them this week, friends of the couple – who split earlier this year – got in touch with me to say that Schofield had also been ‘totally jealous’ of Eamonn.
One thing that particularly irked him, they said, was the Irish broadcaster getting an OBE in 2018. Schofield has no such honours. The This Morning team were thrilled for him – Eamonn was super popular with his colleagues back then – and they wanted to celebrate it on television with a segment on his big day at Buckingham Palace where he was presented with his honour by the late Queen.
When Schofield got wind of these plans there were moves to try to get it stopped and it ‘all kicked off.’
Amanda Holden fell out with Schofield when she didn’t get to stand in for Holly during her time away hosting I’m a Celebrity in 2018
Thankfully for all concerned, Eamonn received his gong on a Friday, the day that he and Ruth usually hosted the show.
Their close friend Rylan Clark stepped in to host in their absence alongside Amanda Holden, who had also fallen out with Schofield.
Rylan and Amanda both gushed about Eamonn’s prestigious accolade marking his 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 genuine celebration full of smiles with the pair also pointing out how happy the Queen looked to be presenting him with the award.
‘This Morning bosses avoided the massive headache of it falling on a day when Phil and Holly were presenting,’ said the source. ‘There was a lot of ‘Oh wasn’t it lucky it fell on a Friday?’ as it meant that Schofield couldn’t go mad.
‘Phil didn’t and still doesn’t have an honour. It was always felt that Phil was jealous of Eamonn’s background as a journalist and news anchor, which he was not, his early days were in a broom cupboard with the puppet Gordon the Gopher.’
Unlike many This Morning – and ITV bosses – through 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 assured.
Having spoken to several former employees, it seems it may have been quite the opposite.
‘There have been reports this week that the This Morning crew didn’t like Eamonn which simply isn’t true,’ said one insider. While another added: ‘The behind-the-scenes staff all loved working Fridays with Ruth and Eamonn. It was a completely different atmosphere on set.
‘Phil would use the ad breaks to go on his phone, he would sit in silence but Eamonn and Ruth would chat to the crew and were always happy to record special video messages for their family and friends, whether it was a birthday or wedding. They were always more than happy to oblige and nothing was too much.
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‘They would also take the crew out to the pub at the end of a half-term and summer weeks when they covered. They were both very generous, and the crew loved them.’
A former regular guest 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 completely different when others were presenting.
‘Then it was so much more relaxed and friendly. You could feel the difference on set. Phil was very much the one in charge and set the tone for the show.’
Another person apparently on Schofield’s firing line is Amanda Holden, who fell out with him when she didn’t get to stand in for Holly during her time away 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 she blamed Schofield.
This week, one of his ‘friends’ accused her of ‘bitter and public revenge’ and said that he was upset about being on Amanda’s ‘most hated list’.
They said: ‘People always go up for jobs they don’t get but she took a bitter and public revenge. It was all part of a hideous communication mix up and not what has been painted out to be. Amanda had lunch with one ITV boss who said afterwards he was sure she could have the gig. But Rochelle had already been approached and cleared her diary.’
‘What a load of rubbish,’ said a source close to Amanda in response. ‘He had some power then and ITV did as he wanted.
‘Amanda’s career is going great, Phil’s not so much – and that’s called karma.’
It appears that his 15 minutes of Cast Away comeback fame have not helped his rehabilitation but may instead hinder it.