Featured Image Credit: ITV
Topics: Holly Willoughby, This Morning, TV And Film, Phillip Schofield, ITV
Callum Jones
Holly Willoughby returned to This Morning for the first time today (5 June) since the whole Phillip Schofield affair scandal.
Schofield quit the ITV show and later resigned from the broadcaster altogether, after admitting to an affair with a younger male colleague.
While all the drama was going on, Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond held the fort on This Morning, with Willoughby on a two-week break.
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But she returned to the This Morning sofa on Monday, hosting alongside Josie Gibson.
Starting off the show, Willoughby addressed all that has gone on in the last few weeks in an emotional statement.
Addressing Schofield's departure, the 42-year-old said: “You, me and everyone 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.”
She addressed the desire to ‘heal for the health and wellbeing for everyone’, as she emotionally read a pre-written statement.
Willoughby and Gibson embraced afterwards before continuing on with the show as normal.
However, a body language expert has since analysed Willoughby's statement, claiming she was not being 'genuine' in the address.
As per Entertainment Daily, Darren Stanton, speaking on behalf of Slingo, shared his thoughts on the much-talked about statement.
"I didn’t feel the connection with Holly during her statement and it didn’t seem genuine," he said.
"There was an area of disingenuousness with her. She definitely needed to address it, but I could feel that she wanted to say a lot more.
"I’m not quite sure if she meant every word."
The body language expert added: "She did look upset, but that could be for a number of reasons. It’s probably down to the whole situation.
"She had Josie there and they did have a hug at the end. Josie is a lot more kinaesthetic, a lot more touchy-feely.
"However, Holly is a lot more reticent and my gut feeling is that there was inauthenticity with Holly’s statement and appearance. Even though we saw tears, I think she was crying because of the pressure, rather than the situation."
Stanton did later add though Holly was 'genuinely upset' and wasn't 'herself' while presenting This Morning today.
Later in the week, Willoughby will be joined by Craig Doyle on the sofa as co-presenter from Wednesday.