There’s another rumoured ‘strained’ relationship at This Morning (Picture: Rex)
Another This Morning duo are said to have a ‘strained relationship’, weeks after Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were reportedly ‘barely speaking’.
Rumours emerged that the duo’s relationship had cooled behind the scenes, days before Schofield, 61, quit This Morning and later sensationally resigned from all his ITV projects including hosting the British Soap Awards, after revealing he had an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a young male show runner.
Holly, having addressed the scandal, has since returned to This Morning as usual, alongside the likes of Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle.
But it’s now been claimed there’s more tension on set, and this time, it surrounds telly favourites Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary – both of whom were in the run to replace Schofield on the programme.
A source said: ‘Alison and Dermot got off to a tricky start, they had very different levels of experience and came from totally different places but they then did start to rub along quite nicely.
The insider continued to Mail on Sunday: ‘Recently though things have become strained and it is worrying the bosses, they fear that this couple they put together which they had hoped would carry the show through the tough times it is enduring may have to present apart a bit more.’
Holly and Schofield were said to be ‘barely speaking’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Holly and Alison’s relationship is also said to have ‘cooled’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
They added that Alison and Holly’s relationship has also ‘cooled off a bit lately’ despite once being ‘as thick as thieves’.
The comments come after allegations have been swirling around the ‘toxic’ culture of This Morning since Schofield’s departure.
This has included the likes of former This Morning guest Dr Ranj Singh speaking out about the ‘toxic’ culture and GB News presenter Eamonn Holmes branding Holly a ‘big mouth’, amid his accusations against Schofield, calling him a ‘liar’.
In one of his bombshell interviews, Eamonn accused Holly and Schofield of being ‘drunk’ while presenting This Morning and claimed Holly was ‘using’ Alison, and said that neither Holly nor Schofield knew the names of people behind the scenes of This Morning.
After Schofield’s exit, Holly returned to This Morning and opened the show in a tearful message speaking directly to the camera.
Holly spoke out about Schofield’s departure (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
She said it was ‘strange’ without him (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage)
‘Hi there, good morning. Josie, thank you for being here. Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok? I hope so. It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.’
She continued: ‘I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions.
‘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.’
The TV host said that it’s ‘equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health’, after Schofield said in an interview with the BBC that he understood how the late Caroline Flack felt before she took her own life.
As Holly continued speaking, her eyes welled up with tears as she told viewers: ‘I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal, for the health and wellbeing of everyone.
Holly Willoughby’s statement in full as she returns to This Morning after Phillip Schofield exit
‘Hi there, good morning. Josie, thank you for being here. Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok? I hope so. It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.
‘I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions.
‘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, 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.
‘I hope that we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.
‘From my heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison, Craig and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you this show that we love.’
‘I hope that we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.’
Meanwhile, Alison broke down in tears during This Morning following Schofield’s no holds barred interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan.
This Morning played two clips from the interview, which included when Schofield asked, ‘How much are you supposed to take?’ in reference to the backlash, and revealed the ‘catastrophic effect’ it’s had on his mind.
He had replied: ‘Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am.’
He also spoke about his daughters Ruby and Molly Lowe’s round-the-clock care for him.
‘If my girls hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here because I don’t see a future.’
Schofield opened up about his mental health after the backlash in his bombshell interview (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Alison sobbed at the interview clip (Picture: ITV)
Alison, 48, began to cry after watching the short segment from his interview.
‘I’m finding this really painful,’ she revealed. ‘I loved Phillip Schofield. It’s weird because I still love Phillip Schofield.’
She added that she knew what he did wasn’t right.
‘However, what he’s done is wrong. He’s admitted it. He’s said sorry. As a family, we’re really struggling to process everything. I never know what to say.’
Dermot, 50, echoed her sentiments saying: ‘It’s very difficult for us to cover this story – he’s a friend and a colleague.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Dermot, Alison and This Morning for comment.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
Phillip Schofield’s tell-all interview: The key points
Phillip Schofield bared all in interviews with The Sun and BBC amid the fallout of confessing to an affair with a This Morning runner. Here is what he said:
‘I did not groom him’
Schofield insists he is not a groomer, saying that while he met the former colleague while he was a teenager, their interactions were innocent and only became sexual when the runner was around 20/21 years old.
He said it never felt like an ‘abuse of power’ because they were ‘mates’.
The affair began in 2017
He has said that the affair began after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
‘It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates,’ he insisted. ‘It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement.’
His wife is ‘very, very angry’
The affair took place while Schofield was married to wife Stephanie Lowe, with whom he shares two daughters.
On the moment he told his wife, he said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, “I need to talk to you”. She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.’
Schofield still wears his wedding ring, but explained that he and Stephanie are ‘separated’.
His daughters saved his life
Schofield confessed to feeling suicidal amid the fallout of his affair and the ‘relentless’ media attention.
His two daughters – Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27 – have been ‘afraid’ to leave his side and warned him: ‘Don’t you dare do this on our watch.’
‘If it hadn’t been for my girls last week, I wouldn’t be here.’
He has apologised to Holly Willoughby
After rumours of a fallout between the pair and after Holly Willoughby said she was lied to by Schofield after asking him about his affair, he has apologised to his former co-presenter.
He said: ‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, “I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.’
He will ‘die sorry’ to the runner he had the affair with
‘I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work. I think my greatest apology must go to him. It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends.
‘It has brought the greatest grief to them.’
The colleague has not been named in the press for his privacy.
No pay-offs
Schofield denied allegations that the runner received hush money from ITV, saying the promotion he got wasn’t to ‘move him on’ but because of his own talents.
He also insisted that the young man did not sign an NDA preventing him from speaking out.
Comparing age gap backlash to ‘homophobia’
‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world,’ he said of age differences.
‘Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world. There shouldn’t be a difference. This is where homophobia comes in.’
Eamonn Holmes is an ‘angry’ man
After Eamonn Holmes made a series of strong allegations against Schofield, he said the Irish TV presenter is just ‘angry’ he’s not on This Morning anymore.
He also continuously denied that This Morning is ‘toxic’.
Doesn’t think he’ll work in TV again
Schofield said it ‘breaks [my] heart’ to talk about TV in the past tense, but he doesn’t see a way back for him.
‘I do not think I will be able to walk down a street ever again. It is like everybody knows.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he said frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
MORE : Fern Britton rules out This Morning return despite Phillip Schofield exit
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Another This Morning couple’s relationship is reportedly ‘strained’.