Holly Willoughby returned to the This Morning sofa without her longtime co-host Phillip Schofield on 5 June.
The presenter, 42, was joined by Big Brother winner and fellow This Morning presenter Josie Gibson as she gave a heartfelt speech addressing the events of the last few weeks.
While Holly has been away on leave, Phillip Schofield quit the show “with immediate effect”, before confessing to an “unwise but not illegal” relationship with a younger staffer.
Holly had been intermittently reacting to the revelations via her Instagram account, but it wasn’t clear what, if anything, she would be allowed to say when she returned to daytime TV.
It’s now believed that Holly’s two minute monologue was scripted – and that edits were still being made just minutes before the show went to air.
Holly started by asking viewers: “Firstly, are you okay? I hope so.”
She then added “it feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil” – the one and only reference she makes to her former co-star by name.
“I imagine that you might be feeling a lot like I have: shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions,” she continued.
She went on to say that she hoped the show could go back to being “a place of warmth and magic” before thanking her fans for all of their kind messages.
Holly, who looked to be near tears, then pulled her colleague and friend Josie in for an embrace, joking that she needed a “Josie hug”.
Fans reacted by questioning the legitimacy of the statement, and it was even mocked by a sitting MP.
And it’s since been said that it was in fact a “highly strategised” appearance.
It’s been reported that the speech was completely scripted and every detail was planned, even down to Holly’s fashion choices.
Holly donned a £188 cream button up dress from Reiss, which a source speaking to the Daily Mail claimed was chosen in the hopes of conveying the seriousness of the situation without looking too “dour.”
The insider source then added that there had been “many drafts” of Holly’s emotional speech, and that by the end she was just “relieved” to have gotten it over and done with – and the show is now looking for a replacement.
The source explained that Producers weren’t just conscious of how it would be received by the audience, but also how it would be reported in the papers.
Holly uses Phil’s name just once in the monologue – a deliberate decision, the source claims, in order to avoid headlines claiming that she had “shunned” him.
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