Last week, Liz Jones launched a 1000 word offensive at Holly Willoughby and her ‘dewy’, make-up free face. Amongst an assortment of equally demoralising insults, such as labelling Holly a ‘drag queen’, Liz said Holly’s decision to post a photograph of her fresh-faced gorgeousness on Twitter was ‘anti-feminist’. We disagreed.
Now, as Holly becomes the new – fully made-up – face of Oral-B 3D White toothpaste, *Grazia Daily *caught up with her to find out what she felt about the whole Daily Mail-induced affair.
'Strangely, because it was her, it didn't bother me so much,' she told us. 'If my mum said that to me, I'd be devastated but if you don't have an awful lot of respect for somebody in the first place, then it's hard to get upset about it. It's almost to be expected from her.'
And modest Holly shrugged off the suggestion from thousands who have branded Liz Jones ‘jealous’. 'Goodness know what's going on in her head, eh? I'm not sure I even want to find out!'
Though she admitted she does read negative opinions written about her, Holly said that she lets any negativity pass her by. 'It's not even about having a thick skin,’ she explained. ‘You just go, "okay". You can only let things bother you if you let them in.’
Looking stunning as always, in a blue Miu Miu dress and Kate Middleton-esque nude heels, Holly said that she was pleased to have friends like Philip Schofield (who tweeted ‘I swear there can be no greater force against all womankind than Liz Jones. She is inconsistent, bitter, nasty and unhinged’ following the columnists’ outburst) as well as the public behind her at what must have been an unsettling time.
'Phil's my friend and if someone upsets your friend, you're going to defend them and that's exactly what he did,' she said.
She was also grateful not only for Grazia Daily's support but those of you who commented on our story. 'I saw what you guys wrote and I really appreciated it,' she said. 'It was nice that people reacted in the way they did rather than saying "I agree!" - which would have been awful'.
But Holly’s the first to concede that not everyone has been pleasant – and so she sympathises with others whose life has been made hell by online trolls. Unlike many, who say we should ignore it, Holly thinks we should be standing up to internet bullies. 'We've had people on the sofa who've said trolling online has affected their life so badly that you do have to make a stand. When these stories first started coming through, we said you can't police Twitter but actually we've proved that that's wrong.
'The beauty of Twitter is that it's people's opinions so you can't only expect the nice ones. It's great to have feedback on both sides and if you don't like it, don't read it. I'm actually quite lucky because most people are nice to me on Twitter and if there's anything that's nasty, I just scroll past.'
The This Morning presenter and Celebrity Juice regular also let us into her beauty bag secrets – for when she chooses to wear a bit of war paint (disclaimer: not for Liz Jones’ pleasure). So from her top glamming-up tips to the perfect celebrity smile, read the rest of our exclusive Q&A with Holly here.
by Zoe Beatyand Jessica Vince