It seems daytime TV’s golden couple are no more.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have consciously uncoupled. And the showbiz world is equal parts aghast and enthralled by the news.
In a statement released on Instagram, Schofield announced that he would be stepping down from This Morning with immediate effect.
The news came after months of speculation about reported tensions between the pair.
We’ve all been there.
I doubt there is an employee anywhere in Scotland who hasn’t, at one time or another, had a colleague that they couldn’t stand to share a break room with.
Mine was an older man who was prone to what can only be described as temper tantrums.
The smallest, most minor inconvenience at our shared workplace would set him off.
He’d veer between near-tears to angry rampages and I just couldn’t be bothered with him.
This was before I became a mum and developed the necessary skills to deal with emotionally unstable people.
Phillip Schofield departure: a tale of two statements
The tyranny of this man’s volatile moods made work a nightmare. But I didn’t issue our boss with any ultimatums to try to get rid of him.
I was a retail worker on just over £5 an hour and that really wasn’t the done thing.
In TV land though, things are different.
It seems that ITV bosses were forced to choose between Willoughby and Schofield after it became clear they could no longer stand to share the same sofa.
It was a him or her situation and, in this case, it was she who emerged victorious.
Shortly after the bombshell news that Schofield would be standing down, Willoughby released a statement about her former co-host which was a masterclass in damning with faint praise.
In it, she thanked Schofield for his “knowledge, experience and humour’’, before going on to say the sofa wouldn’t “feel the same without him’’.
It appears Holly Willoughby is staying on with This Morning, according to this statement she has posted on Instagram. pic.twitter.com/CIiHJ1ObkD
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 20, 2023
Depending on which corner of the internet you inhabit, that last line is either a sincere acknowledgment of the pair’s shared history, or a devastatingly passive-aggressive barb.
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Their reported rift has been subject to intense speculation and innuendo.
And when it comes to the origins of their friendship breakdown, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive.
Some say it started after the pair attracted negative press for what has been dubbed ‘Queue Gate’. Remember when they used their VIP status to cut in line to pay their respects to the late Queen as her body lay in state?
David Beckham in the queue for over 10 hours paying his respects to The Queen while Holly and Phil saunter in, skipping the line is a terrible look. Why do people like this think they’re special? Unless you’re Royalty or a foreign President you join the queue. End of. pic.twitter.com/6X1gbq3ifo
— Joe Michalczuk (@joemichalczuk) September 16, 2022
Others have suggested Willoughby was upset that she had not been given prior warning about an upcoming court case involving Schofield’s brother Timothy, who was jailed for 12 years earlier this month after being found guilty of child sex offences.
During the case it emerged that, prior to his arrest, he had disclosed one incident to his famous brother, who told him: “You’ve got to stop, just never do it again. Regardless how that happened, it must never happen again.”
Timothy Schofield was only arrested when his young victim disclosed what had happened to a counsellor.
It seems that this – to put it very mildly – error of judgement is the most likely catalyst for the breakdown of a decade-long friendship.
Phillip Schofield was the king of daytime TV for the best part of 20 years. And in his resignation statement, he spoke about the upcoming projects he is looking forward to working on.
He would appear to believe his reign has yet to end.
Others might think that wildly optimistic, given his spectacular fall from grace and the many unanswered questions that still surround it.
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