There’s barely a week that goes by without a news story from the set of This Morning, but now the claims are getting personal. According to dramatic reports, ITV’s golden duo Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are no longer BFFs and are said to be barely speaking off camera once filming ends.
The pair have been working together since 2006 and used to regularly holiday together and have each other in fits on laughter on our TV screens.
But a source recently told The Sun that ‘Holly and Phil are not as close as they once were.’
They explain, ‘Holly adores This Morning and for the first time in 14 years she has made it clear that should Phil ever leave she would want to stay. They are separate entities.’
‘Professionally you would have no idea there was anything going on because on camera they are acting exactly the same. But behind the scenes their relationship has cooled.’
What happened between Holly and Phil?
The news of their struggling friendship comes as the presenters have been surrounded by speculation over the past weeks with Phil taking a period of planned leave from This Morning as his brother Timothy stood trial at Exeter Crown Court and was later found guilty on 11 counts of sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019. After the guilty verdict, Philip released a statement condemning his brother's actions, saying 'as far as I'm concerned, I no longer have a brother.'
There was also September 2022’s ‘Queue-gate’ when the pair were accused of using their status as TV stars to skip the winding queue to see the Queen lying-in-state at the Palace of Westminster following her death. At the time of the incident, the pair released a statement stating that they were amongst hundreds of accredited journalists who were given permission to access the hall and were quickly escorted to an area at the back, and as such didn't take anyone's place in the public queue.
Back in October 2022, viewers pointed out Holly apparently roll her eyes in frustration when her co-host interrupted her during an interview with a victim of the Bali bombings on the 20th anniversary of the tragic incident.
Has Holly or Phil addressed the 'drama'?
Phil broke his silence with a statement that was called a 'last-ditch attempt' to repair his friendship with Holly.
Speaking to The Sun, the presenter said, 'As I have said before, Holly is my rock. We’re the best of friends — as always, she is an incredible support on screen, behind the scenes and on the phone. Holly has always been there for me, through thick and thin. And I’ve been there for her. The last few weeks haven’t been easy for either of us.'
Fans have noticed that Holly has even removed a reference to Phil in her Twitter bio. Where it previously read, 'I was introduced to this by a Twitter legend', her bio now just mentions her numerous career ventures.
The rumoured drama has not been addressed on This Morning, with many calling Holly and Phil's appearances on the daytime show 'awkward' owing to the fact they have not acknowledged what has happened between them.
'Phil and Holly did not mention the story that has been on front pages of every paper this weekend and trying to act like everything is fine. It just looks awkward,' wrote one Twitter user.
It could be one of the reasons viewership has plummeted by 170,000 this week. Insiders have described Phil as 'increasingly withdrawn' on the set of the ITV show, saying, 'He seems down and spends a lot of time in his dressing room. We're worried about him.'
It has also been claimed that senior figures at ITV have called a crisis meeting following the influx of negative social media reaction to Holly and Phil's strained facade on This Morning.
A source told MailOnline, 'Social media is used as a barometer to see what the public think. Those in charge were left no under no illusion that it was a total disaster.
'It was painful for the This Morning team to work on and it was just as painful for them to watch.'
Meanwhile, Holly has since given her Wylde Moon subscribers some food for thought about the 'future', writing in her latest newsletter, 'The older I get, the more I appreciate how daunting the concept of time passing can be.
'I can always remember my nan saying things like "wait 'til you get to my age…then it really starts flying by" – and I now I really get it.'
She added, 'If this resonates with you, I wanted to share some advice one of my friends gave me when we were talking about this exact thing. She told me that instead of worrying how quickly it's going, we should look at things differently and appreciate that with every moment (big or small) that passes, we're creating a future filled with joy, love, and endless possibility.'