After rumours of a ‘rift’ with Holly Willoughby, Amanda Holden has broken her silence and said that the ‘language around women’ is often ‘laughable’.
Willoughby, 42, came back to This Morning on Monday after a longer half-term break following Phillip Schofield’s scandalous departure from the ITV show. He had admitted that he had lied about having an affair with a young runner on the show. She tearfully asked the viewers if they were coping with the news.
Many people made fun of her message, including former politician Ann Widdecombe. It also seemed that Holden, 52, had made a joke at her expense by posting a video on social media where she wore a similar outfit and said to her fans: ‘Hello, it is Tuesday. Are you OK?’
A representative for the Britain’s Got Talent judge later clarified that she had no problems with Holly, and that the video was ‘taken out of context’.
In a new post on Instagram, Holden addressed the rumours of a ‘rift’ between her and Willoughby directly.
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She started by writing: ‘The story in The Sun today about Holly and I is completely fabricated, full of inconsistencies and just utter nonsense. Sadly this means every other paper will now write it too. So I have to put this up for a few hours to try and add some reality and truth.
‘Sadly for too long strong and intelligent women have been put in opposition to each other when we should all be celebrated for our own merits. What a surprise the article is written by a MAN.’
Holden stated that she had woken up to the story of an apparent ‘rift’ between her and the fellow TV presenter, alleging that it was ‘not checked’ for factual accuracy.
‘The “rift” story now circulating as a result of this article – which I have woken up to this morning and was not checked for factual correctness – simply does not exist. There have been some huge assumptions made this week and everyone has feasted on them,’ she wrote.
‘These type of articles need to stop. The language around women (in most pieces I read every day) is laughable. It’s so different to how men are written about. Women are still expected to say nothing, suffer silently and just get on with it. And we do… mostly.’
Holden concluded by writing: ‘These stories are there just to distract us from the actual news.. We are becoming a world which is gradually being eroded of all its best qualities – humour, backbone and truth.’
This week, Willoughby presented the first two days of This Morning with Josie Gibson, before being joined by Craig Doyle for the Wednesday and Thursday editions.
In her statement about Schofield’s departure, she said that she felt ‘shaken’ and ‘let down’, looking tearful as Gibson took her hand and gave her a hug on-air.
