After considerable speculation, Holly Willoughby appears to be returning to This Morning on Monday to address all of the recent controversy.
The 42-year-old daytime host has been absent from our screens for the past two weeks, taking an early half-term holiday after former co-host Phillip Schofield, 61, quit the programme after claims of a ‘fallout’ between them.
Holly then went off the air last week after Phillip made a bombshell disclosure about having an affair with a much younger male colleague on the show several years ago.
He apologised for lying to his coworkers and supervisors about the romance, which occurred while he was married and before he came out as homosexual.
Phillip resigned from ITV with ‘immediate effect,’ and his 25-year talent agency also fired him.
Holly has kept a quiet profile since, left the UK to spend time with her family in Portugal.
She will return on June 5, according to insiders, with a ‘open’ and ‘honest’ message for viewers.
According to The Sun, Holly has personally prepared a statement because wants to explain how difficult things have been behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Holly’s coworkers are believed to be empathetic to her situation and to be working hard to make her return to work as painless as possible.
An insider said: ‘Holly wants to address Phillip’s recent admissions about his affair.
‘She will be honest and open, mentioning him by name. She’s not shying away from the tricky subject as she wants to show up for the viewers and loyal fans.’
They added: ‘Even though Holly has been on holiday with her family, she has been thinking about it a lot and tried to process the dramatic turn of events.
‘She has thought about what she will say and written it in advance, taking her time to get the words right.’
The source says it’s not something Holly has been ‘forced to do’.
‘It won’t be an easy moment for her, and she knows she could get emotional, but she thinks it’s the right thing to do and wants to speak about it in an honest way.’
They concluded: ‘It will happen at the very beginning of the show.
‘Holly was really upset to hear that Phil was feeling suicidal amid the backlash since the scandal and doesn’t want him to be in any pain, so she will choose her words carefully and deliver them in a sensitive manner.’
Indeed, Phillip spilled the beans in sit-down interviews with The Sun and BBC last week, addressing all of the allegations levelled against him and providing his side of the story.
The former This Morning presenter admits to having ‘lost everything,’ while his two grown-up daughters, Molly and Ruby,’saved’ him by not letting him out of their sight.
He stated that he ‘wouldn’t be here’ if it weren’t for them.
Phillip, who hosted This Morning with Holly for nearly 13 years, has always claimed that she was unaware of his romance.
In her first and only statement after his confession, she wrote on Instagram: ‘It’s taken time to process yesterday’s news. When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not.
‘It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie. Holly.’
Meanwhile, Phillip stated in a recent interview that he contacted Holly.
‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down,’ he said.
‘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 added to The Sun.
Other sources have said Holly has been feeling ‘distressed’ since Phillip’s revelation.
One said: ‘Holly has not spoken to Phil, but was saddened to see him like that.
‘Seeing Phil so downtrodden and in a bad way was distressing for a number of people who know him personally.
‘There is a big team on This Morning and it was shocking for people to see him that way.’
They added that it’s an ‘incredibly sad situation’, while the This Morning team wants to focus on ‘delivering the best shows they can’.
Holly will be joined by Josie Gibson for the first two shows of next week’s This Morning, while Craig Doyle will be her co-host later in the week, as Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary return for Friday’s episode as normal.
It has not yet been confirmed who Phillip’s permanent replacement will be.
