Holly Willoughby slammed by fans for being a ‘bad friend’ as she returns to social media after Phillip Schofield speech
Holly Willoughby has been slammed by fans who branded her a ‘bad friend’ after her This Morning comeback and statement about the Phillip Schofield scandal.
The presenter, 42, returned to Instagram on Tuesday morning with a gorgeous photo of herself wearing a blue floral dress, ahead of filming the ITV daytime show.
She wrote in her caption, “Morning Tuesday… see you on @thismorning at 10am with @josiegibson85 … the wonderful @sarah.beeny joins us today to talk about her incredibly important and personal documentary ???? #hwstyle dress by @ghostfashion.”
Soon afterwards, she was back on the airwaves for a second day running, showing no signs of discomfort following a stressful few weeks since Phillip, 61, came clean about his affair with a much younger ITV runner.
Some of her followers were left outraged after her emotional statement yesterday, which saw her fight back tears and admit to feeling “shaken, troubled and let down” by her former co-star.
One wrote: “Holly what has he really done especially to you, come on give him a call friend indeed I’m so glad your not mine.”
Another asked: “Any thoughts on what your old friend will be doing this morning Holly? Or do you just forget about people you once cared about.”
Someone else fumed: “U should resign, absolutely outrageous how you treated your best friend.”
A fourth penned: “I used to really like watching Phillip and Holly. And her fashion. I’m so angry at the way she’s treated her “best friend” I can’t stand it!”
While a fifth concluded, “Sorry but you dont [sic] treat friends like this, very disapointing [sic] thought you were better than this.”
Phillip, who was married at the time, branded the relationship “unwise but not illegal”, telling The Sun Holly had no idea.
We revealed last week that Phillip apologised for lying to her about his secret relationship — and for tainting her public image.
The pair worked together for 14 years, since 2009, and were inseparable, but now they no longer speak.
Holly mentioned Phillip’s name only once during a 90-second monologue following weeks of crisis at This Morning.
Phil told The Sun they have broken all contact — and revealed it was his paedophile brother’s imprisonment that made her distance herself from the friendship.
Holly spoke of starting a “new chapter” before being embraced by an emotional Josie, who said: “All we can be now is the family that we are.”
Holly will be joined by Irish presenter Craig Doyle on Wednesday and Thursday, while Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary will be back for their usual slot on Friday.
He has admitted having suicidal thoughts since he was forced out of ITV over the affair scandal that rocked his career.
In his Sun interview he revealed he worked with the This Morning runner for a short period and had become friends.
They met when the boy was just 15, but Phillip said that his colleague was 20 years old when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him – which happened a total of five or six times.