Following the ‘amazing calamity’ of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield‘s departures, Judy Finnigan has ruled out coming on This Morning as a host or guest.
The 75-year-old co-hosted This Morning for 13 years, until 2001, with husband Richard Madeley, before moving on to lead their own programme on Channel 4.
While no permanent successor for Holly, 43, and Schofield, 61, has been revealed, reports have circulated that ITV is looking for married couples.
Holly announced her retirement from the programme this month, calling it a ‘tough farewell’ after 14 years. Her departure comes only months after Schofield resigned from ITV in full and admitting to having a ‘unwise but not criminal affair’ with a younger staffer.
The couple were alleged to be ‘barely communicating’ just weeks ago, with several former This Morning performers citing a ‘toxic’ environment on the programme.
Judy has now addressed future appearances on the show, claiming that she no longer watches it.
She said: ‘I no longer watch it, and won’t appear on there to talk about my book. This isn’t a protest, it’s just a very different show than it was when we were doing it.’
Speaking to Saga Magazine, she went on to talk about the ‘extraordinary disaster’ for the show after both presenters left.
She said: ‘I know the politics inside television are extremely dense but it seems to me to be an extraordinary disaster of a stage in This Morning’s life that I don’t think needed to happen.’
‘Phillip is not a close friend but he is a friend and I must admit I simply cannot understand why he had to go,’ she added.
Judy continued: ‘A lot of discussion has been had about why the show couldn’t work because Phillip and Holly weren’t good friends any more.
‘I couldn’t understand what I always thought was this unhealthy obsession with Holly and Phillip being friends, therefore, for the programme to work they had to be so close.’
She added that programmes and their presenters ‘don’t work like that’, and her and Richard were ‘supposed’ to get along because they were married.
‘I just find the whole thing a great shame and incredibly upsetting.’
This comes after Richard’s comments about the show continuing after Holly’s exit.
The 67-year-old said on Good Morning Britain that he doesn’t think This Morning will come to an end because the show ‘isn’t about the face, it’s about the format’.
He added: ‘Obviously the presenters have to know what they’re doing, they have to do a professional job, but it’s the content and the format that matters. There it is, it’ll carry on.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
