Holly Willoughby, erstwhile BFF of Phillip Schofield, is giving off a deafening silence (so far) following his confession of an affair with a much younger colleague on This Morning.
While many people are feverishly speculating about Holly, we should keep in mind that she isn’t actually obliged to speak out about it the day after the news broke.
What and when did Holly Willoughby know?
Most speculation surrounding Holly right now concerns whether she knew Phillip was having an affair.
If she was aware – and we have no evidence that she was – let’s consider a few things before condemning her outright.
Firstly, if she was aware, then – yes – she was hiding this deceitful secret from Phillip’s family, to whom she was said to be close – but she’d hardly be the first best friend to do this. It is possible to keep a friend’s confidence while simultaneously disagreeing with what they are doing, even considering it appalling behaviour.
Did Holly have an obligation to expose the affair at work if she knew? Again, if workplace relationships aren’t banned at ITV and there was no apparent abuse of power, then why should she have spoken up? Whether Holly, if in that predicament, should have automatically regarded it as an abuse of power is a whole other conversation…
Has Holly only recently found out about the affair and this is behind the fallout with her sometime best buddy, and Phillip’s exit from This Morning?
This is entirely possible – although this does beg the question: what did Holly tell ITV to initiate her co-star’s This Morning departure?
When did ITV discover the truth about Phillip Schofield?
Presumably she didn’t divulge the affair, as ITV was planning to continue working with Phillip despite his departure from This Morning.
The statement from ITV yesterday, which confirmed the network had accepted his resignation from all shows, suggests they had only just learned of his deceit i.e. that he had engaged in an affair with a This Morning colleague.
However, the plot thickens here as multiple people who worked at ITV have claimed bosses had already been warned about Phillip Schofield’s conduct before this week. When pushed to comment on this, ITV claimed it did not have substantial evidence to warrant an investigation.
Hours after Schofield issued his statement via the Daily Mail, former This Morning colleague Eamonn Holmes tweeted: “Schofield has finally been caught out … But he’s not the only guilty party. 4 high members of ITV management knew what sort of man he was … and NEVER once took action.”
Read more: Holly Willoughby under pressure to quit This Morning
Among many supportive replies were also accusations of Eamonn being a hypocrite by not speaking out sooner.
He defiantly responded: “Ruth and I were deceived and lied to. One day I will tell the story. We had no issue with him being gay, only support. What transpired took us for fools . The man told us complete lies and we unfortunately believed him.”
Earlier in the week, following news that Phillip had ‘stepped down’ from This Morning, Eamonn almost burst a blood vessel discussing the furore.
Eamonn Holmes promises the full story
On the subject of Schofield’s sidekick, Eamonn spat: “Holly is being as false as he is and nobody is talking about the elephant in the room.
“She says, ‘I thank him for all his knowledge, experience and humour’. All the things that she didn’t have when she came to the show. Well it’s true! I would call that stabbing in the back.”
Eamonn also alleged: “Holly knows the truth, the story is with her.”
What the ‘truth’ or ‘story’ in question is, we still don’t fully know.
Because not one single party involved in or surrounding the drama has offered up a full account, it’s difficult to know who is supposed to have known what – and when. And what that, er, what actually is!
Only time will tell if anyone is willing or able to shed more light on the mystifying saga.
>How do you think Holly Willoughby should address the latest Phillip Schofield news? Do you think ITV has a lot more to answer to over Phillip Schofield and the This Morning affair? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know