Lorraine Kelly’s message to Holly Willoughby
Holly Willoughby announced her resignation from This Morning on Tuesday (10 October), days after an alleged plot to kidnap her emerged.
In a statement shared on Instagram, the 42-year-old ITV presenter said it has been an “honour to just be part of [the show’s] story”, but “I now feel I have to make this decision for me and my family”.
The news comes after a 36-year-old man was charged over an alleged plot to kidnap and murder the TV personality last week.
Willoughby had reportedly been placed on “indefinite leave” from the show ahead of her resignation.
Messages of support for the star quickly flooded in following her announcement with her This Morning colleague Alison Hammond writing: “This is a very sad day! Love You.”
The popular ITV morning chat show also faced turmoil earlier this year when Willoughby’s longtime co-presenter Philip Schofield resigned after admitting to an affair with a younger colleague.
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Rochelle Humes and Craig Doyle celebrate Willoughby’s tenure
This Morning co-host Rochelle Humes said: “Holly loved her job here and was really looking forward to the future of the show, but recent events, especially in the past week, have been hard to deal with, and she’s quite rightly putting her family first.”
Craig Doyle added: “On behalf of everyone here, in front and behind the camera, we just loved working with Holly. She made coming to work so much fun. We’re all really sad, and we’re really going to miss her.”
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 10:32
Feltz appears to address alleged kidnap plot
“She is a golden-hearted, sweet, funny, extremely bright…clever, intuitive, incisive, fabulous person…she’s a wonderful person, and you can see family is her absolute everything,” Feltz praised her friend Willoughby.
Appearing to address the alleged foiled kidnapping plot, she continued: “When somebody is rocked to the core by a threat of pure evil upon their actual life….you can see why she’s made the decision she’s made.”
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 10:29
This Morning pays tribute to Willoughby
A brief tribute to Willoughby was made by her former This Morning colleagues including Vanessa Feltz and Tom Swarbrick.
Feltz said: “You can see why she’s made the decision she’s made, it will have been so incredibly hard of her…
Some viewers expressed their suprise at the brief on-air tribute to Willoughby, who has been at the daytime show for 14 years.
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 10:16
We’re now tuning into the first This Morning show since longtime presenter Holly Willoughby announced her resignation.
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 10:06
Alison Hammond, Carol Vorderman, and Vanessa Feltz are among the TV personalities who have expressed their support for Holly Willoughby, as the former This Morning presenter looks to begin a new chapter.
“This is a very sad day,” fellow This Morning star Hammond wrote on X/Twitter.
We’ve rounded up industry reactions to Willoughby’s departure here:
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 09:40
Sky News criticised for covering Holly Willoughby ITV exit from Israel
“Imagine reporting live from an active war zone and having to stop reporting on that for the ‘Breaking News’ that Holly Willoughby has left This Morning. Our country is a parody sometimes,” one person wrote on X/Twitter.
Read the full story here:
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 09:20
Holly Willoughby’s resignation in full
You can read Holly Willoughby’s resignation from ITV’s This Morning in full here:
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 09:00
A timeline of Holly Willoughby’s TV career – from the Queen’s funeral to resignation
Holly Willoughby has quit This Morning after a 14-year stint, alongside Phillip Schofield, that culminated in a turbulent final year.
Below, my colleague Tom Murray has created a timeline tracing how This Morning’s beloved presenting team abruptly went off-air.
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 08:36
Morning! If you’re just joining us, Holly Willoughby has resigned from This Morning, with the TV presenter explaining she was making the difficult decision to leave ITV “for me and my family”.
Willoughby’s resignation comes after a tumultuous 12 months, including the controversy with her former co-presenter Phillip Schofield, as well as an alleged kidnapping plot.
Follow along as we cover the first This Morning show since Willoughby announced her exit, as well as any live reactions from her fans and colleagues.
Maanya Sachdeva11 October 2023 08:16
Holly Willoughby’s memorable ‘are you OK?’ speech
Following the scandal surrounding her former colleague, Phillip Schofield, Willoughby returned to This Morning and first addressed the viewers at home with a statement about the tumult of the past few weeks.
“I imagine that you might be feeling a lot like I have: shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions,” she began.
“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 that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.
“And 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 a 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 in each other.”
Roisin O’Connor11 October 2023 08:01