Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Former This Morning presenter Judy Finnigan rules out appearing on the ITV show

Former This Morning host Judy Finnigan has said she would not appear on the show (Clint Hughes/PA)
Former This Morning host Judy Finnigan has said she would not appear on the show (Clint Hughes/PA)

Judy Finnigan has ruled out being a guest on This Morning, or watching the daytime programme.

The 75-year-old presenter and author fronted the ITV series alongside her husband Richard Madeley for 13 years before moving on in 2001.

The duo, who started the Richard and Judy Book Club together, have returned to host the programme over the last few years for specials.

National Television Awards 2020 – Press Room – London
Former This Morning hosts Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley (Ian West/PA)

She told Saga Magazine: “For 13 years Richard and I hosted This Morning but I will 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.

“We’d interview people about books and you felt like there was some real interest there. I’m not sure there would be now.”

Finnigan released Cornish-set romantic mystery tale Roseland earlier this month.

Madeley has been presenting on ITV1’s breakfast show Good Morning Britain and also appeared on This Morning in October to celebrate 35 years of the programme.

Finnigan also spoke about the “extraordinary disaster” for the show as both the two main hosts left, Holly Willoughby in October, and Phillip Schofield in May.

She added: “Phillip is not a close friend but he is a friend and I must admit I simply cannot understand why he had to go.”

Schofield admitted to an “unwise but not illegal” relationship with a younger male colleague on May 26 and resigned from ITV.

He had previously stepped down from This Morning on May 20 following a reported rift with Willoughby. He said at the time he was leaving so the show “can move forward to a bright future”.

This Morning Bafta Tribute – London
Phillip Schofield, Holly Willoughby, Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley (Yui Mok/PA)

Finnigan also said: “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.

“Programmes and presenters don’t work like that … We (Judy and Richard) were married and so supposed to be good friends. I just find the whole thing a great shame and incredibly upsetting.”

Willoughby left This Morning on October 10 saying it was “for me and my family”.

To read the full article with Judy Finnigan in Saga Magazine’s December issue head to Exceptional.com.