Holly Willoughby: ‘I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anybody’
Dancing On Ice host and former This Morning star Holly Willoughby has reflected on a nightmare year following her stalking ordeal and her choice to step down from the hit daytime TV show.
Holly’s exit from This Morning came in October 2023, shortly after learning she had been subject to a depraved plot to kidnap, rape, and murder her.
The man responsible, former security guard Gavin Plumb, received three life sentences last year after he unwittingly revealed his plan to an undercover US officer in an online chatroom.
UK authorities were contacted by the FBI, who immediately arrested Plumb, discovering over one million images of different women on his computer, including 10,322 of the television presenter.
After being found guilty of plotting to kidnap and murder the TV personality, Plumb was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and 85 days.
Holly, 43, has now opened up for the first time about what she went through, giving her first interview in over a year and describing the period as ‘a tough one’, to say the least.
Speaking in an interview with The Times, Holly revealed how difficult the past 12 months have been for her.
‘It’s been a tough one. There’s no way of sugar-coating it,’ an emotional Holly told the newspaper.
She continued: ‘Nothing can prepare you for something like that. When something like that happens, you have a decision to make.
‘You either decide, right, I can take this on board, and it can absolutely affect all aspects of my life. Or I can make a choice to go, let’s focus on everything that’s positive and good, all those important things.’
Describing the court case, Holly spoke about her decision to focus on self-care and family, which includes husband Daniel Baldwin and their three children.
She continued: ‘You have to go: I choose to positively move forward and rely on all those people — the police, the court, the judge, the jury — all those people to do their role. And that’s what I had to do.’
‘I mean, every single person I speak to, and it seems more and more currently are going through something, you know? I think that — although I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anybody at all — sometimes things go wrong, but you have to keep going for it because that’s all you can do.’
Shortly after Plumb was arrested, Holly decided to step back from her presenting role on This Morning.
This came after months of upheaval for the ITV show and amid the controversy of co-host Phillip Schofield’s ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger colleague.
When asked whether she found it difficult to step away from the show, Holly replied that the question was ‘wrapped up in so many things that were going on at that time.’
‘But no,’ she stated. ‘That was the last thing on my mind. The choice was really simple and easy, actually.’
Holly returned to screens earlier this year as the co-host of Dancing On Ice, alongside her former CITV co-star Stephen Mulhern.
Her comeback continues with the action-packed competition series Celebrity Bear Hunt, which sees survivalist Bear Grylls attempt to hunt down a group of celebrities in a Central American jungle as host Holly follows the action.
Bear’s prey – sorry, contestants – includes former Spice Girl Mel B, Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas, celebrity chef Big Zuu, and Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas.
‘As Bear puts them through their paces, those who fail to impress will face the dreaded “Bear Hunt” – a brutal game of cat and mouse where they’ll be hunted down by Bear himself and, if captured, face elimination from the show,’ the synopsis teases.
Celebrity Bear Hunt airs on Netflix from February 5.
Holly Willoughby: ‘I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anybody’