Holly Willoughby skips Phillip Schofield’s TV return for a night out as former This Morning star slams her as ‘a s**t’
HOLLY Willoughby snubbed former This Morning co-star Phillip Schofield’s telly comeback for a night out in London.
The ITV darling, 43, skipped his Channel 5 reality show, Cast Away, for an evening at an east London theatre.
Holly appeared eager to gush over the Abigail’s Party show at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, capturing an image of the exterior of the venue lit in neon bulbs.
She added the cheery Donna Summer track Love To Love over the top, before showcasing a selfie inside the venue.
The mum of three was seen flashing a beaming smile and wearing a classic black roll-neck jumper.
She kept her make-up minimal and styled her blonde shoulder-length locks poker-straight as she cuddled up to former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite, 53.
In her caption she referred to her pal and wrote: “You are simply incredible.
“If you get the chance please go and see this.”
Tamzin looked stylish in her black zip-up jacket and wavy blow-dry, complete with bright green eyeshadow from playing her character Beverly.
Holly didn’t shy away from the fact she was heading out as the first episode of Phil’s telly comeback aired.
Veteran broadcaster Phil, 62, swapped ITV for Channel 5 in scenes which saw him marooned on a desert island.
It represented Phil’s return to the small screen after he told how he was “stepping down” from his ITV daytime gig earlier this year, when his “ill-advised but not illegal” affair with a show runner was exposed.
Wylde Moon founder Holly may have been eager to swerve the show after Phil blasted “three s**ts in showbiz” and admitted he felt “betrayed” – in an apparent swipe at his former telly “wife.”
Another target was thought to be This Morning editor Martin Frizell — who Phil seems to blame for letting him take the flak over “Queuegate”, when he and Holly were accused of pushing in to see the Queen lying in state.
Other targets could include ITV chief Dame Carolyn McCall.
Talking about his 40-year TV career, he said on his show: “They know how important that was to me.
Cast Away verdict
By Rod McPhee
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Philip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Philip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
“They know when you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it. Brand, ambition is not good enough.”
He goes on: “People can be fake. They can be so fake with you when it’s all going well, and suddenly utter, utter betrayal.
“There are a lot of amazing people in morning television.
“I think there are only three sh*s. One of them is a coward who never stepped up in queuegate.
“One is a coward, because they never stepped up when I was being battered And the other is just brand-orientated.”
Phil also told how he felt thrown “under the bus” by his ITV colleagues in another apparent swipe at Holly.
We exclusively reported how the scenes show him as he admitted: “When you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it.”
Phillip also appeared to mock the cringeworthy moment when Holly broached the subject of his departure on This Morning, as she bizarrely opened the show with the words: “Are you OK?”
He is seen having a family barbecue in the garden of his London home and handing food to wife Stephanie Lowe and their daughters Molly, 31, and Ruby, 28.
As he does so, he laughs: “If you’re OK, then we’re OK, and I’m OK . . . are you OK?”