Susanna Reid and Prince Philip
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GMB today: Susanna Reid back early as she recalls Prince Philip’s ‘incredibly direct’ words to her

The host was supposed to be on holiday.

On GMB today, Susanna Reid was back after cutting her holiday short to be on the programme following the death of Prince Philip.

The Duke of Edinburgh died on Friday (April 9) at the age of 99, having returned home to Windsor Castle last month after several weeks in hospital.

Prince Philip died at the age of 99 on Friday, April 9 (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Why was Susanna Reid back on Good Morning Britain?

Susanna Reid was supposed to be enjoying time off from Good Morning Britain today (Monday, April 12).

However, the daytime TV favourite decided to come back to the programme early to join the discussions about the late duke and pay tribute to him.

Read more: Prince Harry ‘arrives in UK’ ahead of Prince Philip’s funeral

Susanna, who presented the show with colleague Kate Garraway, said it was an “honour” to be back early.

Susanna returned to GMB today and paid tribute to Prince Philip (Credit: ITV)

Host’s tribute to late Duke of Edinburgh

She said: “Today, of course, remembering, honouring and celebrating the life of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

“And it’s an honour to be here early this morning to be able to do that beside you, Kate.”

I met him once and he was just incredibly direct. That was the thing, he notoriously did not like small talk.

Kate said that Susanna was “meant to be on holiday” but the presenter said it was a “very special occasion”.

Kate replied: “Everybody wants to mark the moment and everyone’s had thoughts over the weekend, I think, about [Prince Philip’s death].”

Susanna recalled a funny story about meeting the Duke of Edinburgh (Credit: ITV)

Prince Philip’s blunt response to Susanna’s Duke of Edinburgh award fail

Elsewhere on the programme, Susanna had her colleagues in stitches when she revealed the royal’s ‘very direct’ words to her, after she told him she had failed to complete a Duke of Edinburgh award.

Susanna explained: “I met him once and he was just incredibly direct. That was the thing, he notoriously did not like small talk and yet he had to do, how many solo engagements, 22,000? 5,000 speeches. He was involved with 800 charities.

Read more: Ben Shephard fights back tears for Kate Garraway as he recalls her year of hell

“He just did so much and so he obviously had to do small talk with millions of people.

“He said to me, it was at a Duke Of Edinburgh gold award ceremony, and he said to me in the line-up, ‘Well, did you do one of these?’ and I said, ‘I did, but I failed to finish’.

“He said, ‘What on Earth was wrong with you?’ and he moved on to the next person!”

“The whole point of the Duke of Edinburgh is to really try and put everything into it and… what on Earth was wrong with me that I couldn’t finish?”

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor