Judy Finnigan has branded the “obsessive” scrutiny over Phillip Schofield’s friendship with Holly Willoughby “incredibly upsetting”, insisting that they didn’t need to be close friends to star together on This Morning.
Judy was married to her own This Morning co-star, her husband Richard Madeley, but has said she doesn’t expect other hosts to have the same on-screen chemistry.
Although she was never close to Phillip, she has claimed she would still regard him as a friend and “simply cannot understand why he had to go”.
“I couldn’t understand what I always thought was this unhealthy obsession with Holly and Phillip being best friends – therefore for the programme to work they had to be so close,” she told Saga magazine.
“Programmes and presenters don’t work like that… [Richard and I] were married and so supposed to be good friends,” Judy continued.
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Referring to Phillip’s departure, she sadly remarked: “I know the politics inside television are extremely dense but it seems to me to be an extraordinary disaster of a stage in This Morning’s life that I don’t think needed to happen.”
Meanwhile, although she’s quick to insist that she isn’t shunning the show as any kind of “protest”, Judy has revealed that she no longer watches the show she spent almost a decade and a half presenting.
The 75-year-old, who ended her stint on This Morning back in 2001, has insisted it’s “very different” these days and consequently that she’s unlikely to ever promote her book on the show.
“[When Richard and I did the show’], we’d interview people about books and you felt like there was some real interest there. I’m not sure there would be now,” she explained.
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She added that she found the tension over Holly and Phillip “a great shame” and “incredibly upsetting”.
Earlier this year, newspaper reports circulated suggesting that the pair were “barely speaking” amid struggles behind the scenes.
It later emerged that Phillip had lied about an “unwise but not illegal” relationship with a much younger colleague, which took place during his marriage to wife Steph.
Sources reported that the once good friendship between himself and Holly had cooled in the lead-up to ITV’s formal investigation, despite many describing her as his “rock” after he came out as gay back in 2020.
Holly has now also announced her decision to leave This Morning, while there is no word on whether she will return to the Dancing On Ice presenting slot she once shared with Phillip.
In the meantime, Judy – whose latest novel Roseland is out now – has also opened up on how she and Richard dealt with arguments during their own This Morning stint.
“We have always respected each other’s opinions, which is why we managed to work so well together,” she explained.
“We might sometimes be absolutely furious with each other and not speaking, but in the end that kind of thing doesn’t matter, especially as you get older.”
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