Holly Willoughby’s dramatic speech about Phillip Schofield on today’s This Morning in full

Holly Willoughby is back hosting ITV’s This Morning for the first time since her co-star Phillip Schofield quit. In her speech, Holly admitted feeling “let down” by Phillip Schofield “not telling the truth.” She also promises to bring “warmth and magic” back to the morning chat show.

Holly said: “Hi there, good morning.”Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok? I hope so. It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil and I imagine you may be feeling a lot like I have. Shaken, let down and worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions.

“You, me, and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth. Who acted in a way that they themselves felt they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. It’s a lot to process. It’s equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is the desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone. I hope that as we start this new chapter, and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength from each other.”

via ITV

Holly continued: “And from the heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison, Craig and every single person who works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you the show that we love.”

Phillip Schofield has given two interviews wince leaving ITV – one to the BBC and one to The Sun. In both he insisted Holly Willoughby did not know about he affair he had with a younger ITV staff member on the This Morning team.

In his interview with the Sun, the 61-year-old presenter apologised to Willoughby for lying to her about his relationship, saying: “I’ve lost my best friend”. He added: “I let her down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down. Holly did not know and she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say: ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you.’

“She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply as well. So yeah, if anyone is in any way linking Holly to this, that is ­absolutely, wholly untrue.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Viewers can expect an ’emotional’ speech about Phillip from Holly as she returns to This Morning

• A timeline of how Phillip Schofield went from the king of daytime TV to a ‘national disgrace’

• The seven most shocking revelations to come from Phillip Schofield’s BBC interview