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5th June 2023
10:05am BST
Holly Willoughby has given an emotional statement on her return to This Morning.
In her first appearance on This Morning since Phillip's admission of the secret affair, Holly said she felt “shaken, troubled, let down and worried.”
She started by saying: "It feels very strange indeed to be sitting here without Phil."
She continued: "I imagine that you might have been 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.
"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 they loved - that is a lot to process.
"And it's equally hard to see the toll it's taken on their own mental health."
She went on to say that what "unites us all now is a desire to heal the health and wellbeing of everyone."
She finished by saying: "I hope that as we start this new chapter, we get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, and we can find strength in each other."
Holly then thanked people for all their kind messages.
It is thought that Holly had drafted the statement herself while she was on holiday in Portugal.
The news comes as The Sun published pictures of Schofield, 61, being comforted by his mum Pat, 87, on May 19 after revealing he had been axed by This Morning.
Schofield gave a series of interviews last week and spoke about his affair and how he feels like there is nothing but “blackness” ahead of him.
Schofield said the relationship was consensual and it began in his dressing room in 2017 when the man was 20. Earlier he labelled the affair, “unwise but not illegal”.
The star met the man – who has not been publicly named – when he was 15. He was 19 when he first did work experience at This Morning in 2015, and 20 when he applied and succeeded in securing a job as a runner on the show.
In 2019, he was promoted to Loose Women and left ITV in 2021.
Schofield has denied grooming the man and said the affair did not begin until the man was 20 after “something just happened between us that changed everything”.
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