This Morning viewers left cringing over ‘awkward’ exchange between Holly Willoughby and Ruth Langsford

Viewers were left cringing at an 'awkward' moment between Holly Willoughby and Ruth Langsford during the handover from This Morning to Loose Women.

Willoughby was back on the This Morning sofa for the first time since the whole Phillip Schofield saga led to him leaving the show.

At the beginning of yesterday's (5 June) episode Willoughby gave a statement saying: "You, me and everyone gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth."

The presenter went on to say that there was a desire to 'heal for the health and wellbeing for everyone' before the show got underway with segments on dealing with the 'pollen bomb' and a new recipe for cooking king prawns.

However, when This Morning was over and the time came to hand over to Loose Women there was an exchange which some ITV viewers found pretty awkward.

ITV

On camera it was all smiles as they only spoke to each other briefly but as Willoughby was handing over to Ruth Langsford viewers thought they picked up on something.

One said they found it 'so wrong' and that they 'feel for Ruth', while a second said they thought the Loose Women presenter 'looks incredibly uncomfortable'.

A third said they thought they were watching 'seriously fake OTT smiles', and 'OTT' means 'over the top' for those of you among us who are not down with how the kids these days speak.

While there's not been direct conflict between Willoughby and Langsford there is what you might call a spot of indirect beef as Langsford's husband, Eamonn Holmes, has been very outspoken on the whole This Morning affair.

Holmes has been incredibly critical of Schofield in recent days and Willoughby hasn't been left out of his criticisms, so it would be quite understandable if trying to do a light entertainment daytime TV handover to his wife was a bit awkward.

Among the comments Holmes has made about Willoughby is that she should 'follow Phil out the door' so it's safe to say he's not her biggest fan.

Last month Langsford made a 'feuding' joke on Loose Women which some viewers thought was a reference to the then-speculation about just what was going on behind the scenes with Schofield and Willoughby.

This Morning viewers who watched yesterday's show reckon that Willoughby's statement about Schofield sent a message that any friendship they had was probably over.

She only mentioned his name once and a body language expert claimed that Willoughby looked 'genuinely upset' and 'wasn't herself' while presenting the Monday edition of This Morning.