What’s REALLY driving Phillip Schofield’s feud with Holly Willoughby: KATIE HIND reveals the hot spot that started it all, why he’s ‘jealous’ of Eamonn Holmes and why he fell out with Amanda Holden

Holly Willoughby couldn’t believe her eyes when she landed her job on ITV’s This Morning.

“I almost fainted,” she told me a week before starting Britain’s most prestigious daytime show in September 2009. “I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t see it coming. This is the best TV work ever.

“There were so many other very, very talented presenters in the frame, so I never thought I would have a chance.”

She had Phillip Schofield to thank for this opportunity – something she was well aware of.

They had hosted Dancing On Ice together since 2006. He loved Holly, enjoyed working with her and pushed her to get the job.

But insiders also believe he lobbied for her because, in his eyes, the bubbly former children’s TV presenter would never threaten his number one position.

“Phil thought he would always be the star with Holly as the pretty wing woman,” recalls a This Morning insider. “He would always be king, he never thought he would lose his power.”

Today, however, things couldn’t have gone more differently. He’s unemployed, she’s in demand – and she doesn’t like it at all.

So it’s perhaps understandable that Holly – and indeed her ITV colleagues past and present – fear what Phil will do next after a week in which her “friends” allegedly leaked stories about her and other former colleagues during which he was claimed she had “shot him down”.

Schofield sent the message on WhatsApp in May last year – just before he resigned after finally admitting his affair with a much younger male colleague. He criticized Holly for not publicly supporting him amid reports they had fallen out following his brother’s conviction of abusing a boy in April.

Those close to Schofield also said that in private he called her the “witch.”

Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford also found themselves in his crosshairs, with sources close to Schofield revealing that ITV axed the now estranged couple from This Morning, not only because of low ratings, but also because of appearance of Holmes when he ate the food presented.

Schofield is back in the public eye following his appearance on Channel 5 reality show Cast Away, in which he appears to have relished the opportunity to air his grievances against former colleagues while he was stranded on a desert island.

As a senior ITV executive said to me this week: “Blimey, Phil’s been busy, hasn’t he!” »

On Cast Away, Schofield referred to “three showbiz bullshit”. One of them is thought to be Holly, 43, another This Morning editor, Martin Frizell, and ITV’s third daytime boss, Emma Gormley, who has always held Holly in high regard .

“Phil seems to see his time in the sun as a chance to lash out at everyone he hates,” a source close to his friendship with Holly said.

“What will come out next?” Holly’s been through a year of hell and it’s the last thing she needs, months after someone was jailed for life for planning to kidnap, rape and murder her.

In July, security guard Gavin Plumb was jailed for at least 16 years for plotting a “home invasion” at Willoughby’s property, where he planned to tie her up and rape her in front of her family before killing her. ‘murder and dispose of his body. an abandoned building on the outskirts of London.

The source adds: “The worry is Phil is going to pop up at any moment with his next tirade of hatred.

In public, Holly has maintained a dignified silence over the latest stories. The problem, friends say, is that Phil thinks Holly started this argument and will continue to find ways to get revenge.

Certainly, he seems to have become jealous of the attention Holly was receiving.

In 2019, they did a joint interview with the Sunday Times Magazine. On the cover, there was a fake crown on Holly’s head – not Phil’s. The title read “Queen Holly”.

Apparently he was so furious that ITV bosses contacted the publication and demanded he apologize to Phil.

“Things were never the same,” says my source. “They should never have done that interview, it was always going to blow up between them. It was when Holly was catapulted above him (in the public eye), and he didn’t like it.

“Getting ITV to demand an apology was their way of asserting their power. This has been a very difficult time for everyone involved in This Morning.

Then there’s the long-running argument between Schofield, Ruth and Eamonn.

The couple’s feud dates back to 2019 when Ruth filed a formal internal complaint against Schofield.

While working on ITV’s Loose Women, she was snubbed by Schofield when she was cut off mid-link while explaining what was happening on the show during a This Morning segment.

Following Team Phil’s briefings about them this week, friends of the couple – who split earlier this year – contacted me to say Schofield had also been “totally jealous” of Eamonn.

One thing that particularly angered him, they said, was that the Irish channel was awarded an OBE in 2018. Schofield has no such honors. The This Morning team were delighted for him – Eamonn was very popular with his colleagues at the time – and wanted to celebrate him on TV with a segment on his big day at Buckingham Palace where he received his honor by the late queen.

When Schofield learned of these plans, steps were taken to try to stop them and it all “took off.”

Luckily for everyone involved, Eamonn received his gong on a Friday, the day he and Ruth usually hosted the show.

Their close friend Rylan Clark stepped in to host in their absence alongside Amanda Holden, who had also fallen out with Schofield.

Both Rylan and Amanda delighted in Eamonn’s prestigious accolade marking 40 years as one of Britain’s top broadcasters before chatting to the couple outside Buckingham Palace during a live link-up.

The segment was a true celebration full of smiles, with both men also emphasizing how happy the Queen seemed to be presenting him with the award.

“This morning saved bosses the huge headache of falling on a day when Phil and Holly were presenting,” the source said. “There was a lot of ‘Oh, wasn’t it lucky it was a Friday?’ because that meant Schofield couldn’t go crazy.

“Phil did not have and still does not have honor. Phil was always thought to be jealous of Eamonn’s past as a journalist and news presenter, which was not the case, his debut took place in a broom closet with puppet Gordon the Gopher.

Unlike many This Morning – and ITV – bosses over the years, Eamonn refused to bow to Phil. Perhaps that’s why Phil’s friends also said this week that the This Morning team didn’t like Eamonn – another lie, I’m assured.

After speaking to several former employees, it seems to be quite the opposite.

“There were reports this week that the This Morning team didn’t like Eamonn, which is simply not true,” a source said. While another added: “The staff behind the scenes all loved working on Fridays with Ruth and Eamonn. There was a completely different atmosphere on set.

“Phil would use ad breaks to go on his phone, he would sit in silence but Eamonn and Ruth would chat with the team and were always happy to record special video messages for family and friends, whether it was a birthday or a wedding They were always more than happy to oblige and nothing was too much trouble.

“They would also take the team to the pub at the end of the holidays and summer weeks, when they were covering. They were both very generous and the crew loved them.

A former regular guest on This Morning added: “Phil wouldn’t even recognize me until the segment started. There were no jokes or friendly hellos. The atmosphere was completely different when others were presenting.

“Then it was so much more relaxed and friendly. You could feel the difference on set. Phil was really in charge and set the tone for the show.

Another person apparently in Schofield’s crosshairs is Amanda Holden, who fell out with him when she was unable to fill in for Holly during his absence to host I’m A Celebrity in 2018. Amanda was tipped for the job , but The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes was hired instead.

Amanda made no secret of the fact that she was accusing Schofield.

This week, one of her “friends” accused her of “bitter, public revenge” and said he was upset at being on Amanda’s “most hated people list.”

They said: “People are always looking for jobs they don’t get, but she took bitter and public revenge. This was all part of a hideous communications mix-up and not what was described as being. Amanda had lunch with an ITV boss who said afterwards he was sure she could get the gig. But Rochelle had already been approached and deleted her diary.

“What a load of bullshit,” replied a source close to Amanda. “He had some power then and ITV did what he wanted.

“Amanda’s career is going very well, Phil’s not so well – and it’s called karma.”

It seems that his 15 minutes of fame during the return of Cast Away did not help his rehabilitation but could, on the contrary, hinder it.