Holly Willoughby... from girl next door to television queen
Holly Willoughby is the I’m A Celebrity understudy who’s stolen the show. From her sell-out M&S collection to her £10m fortune, Laura Craik charts the rise of the girl next door who became one of TV’s most powerful women
If Holly Willoughby didn’t exist, God would have had to invent her. While the world slowly goes to hell in a handcart, there she is, a cheerful blonde reminder that however bad your day has been, however worried you are about funding Christmas and whatever dire Brexit machinations have gone on in Parliament, it will soon be 9pm and you will be able to lie on the sofa giggling at Holly giggling with Dec as some hapless celebrity — not giggling — chows down on some tasty kangaroo balls.
If that’s not your thing, she’ll soon be back on the sofa again with Phil, owning This Morning, just as she seems to own everything this year. For Holly — estimated net worth £10m — has a golden touch that would put Midas himself to shame. Whether she’s selling out ankle boots at M&S, reducing a normally staid Leonardo DiCaprio to tears or simply making smutty faux pas like a latter-day Barbara Windsor, it’s increasingly clear that this is Holly’s world — and we’re just lucky enough to live in it.
Here we break down the appeal of the nation’s sweetheart.
STAR OF THE SOFA
The history of daytime TV is littered with famous duos, from Richard and Judy to Susanna and Piers. But none have quite the same chemistry as Holly and Phil (it’s surely significant that her name tends to be uttered before his), their 19-year age difference (he’s 56, she’s 37) lending Phil the role of avuncular uncle to Holly’s giggly niece.
In their nine years as co-anchors on ITV’s 30-year-old flagship programme, they claim they’ve “never even come close” to arguing, and say they know as much about each other as do their respective partners. That they’re close friends as well as colleagues explains their propensity to dissolve into laughter at the slightest provocation — a device which even makes their gaffes likeable, and transforms this most old-fashioned of formats into TV gold.
POWER OF THE JUNGLE
Just as the world and its wife was muttering that I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here was looking ‘old’ and ‘tired’ after almost 17 years, along comes our heroine to breathe life into the jungle again. ‘It won’t be the same without Ant,’ they said, in reference to the fact that long-time co-presenter Ant McPartlin would for the first time be skipping a season, as part of his ongoing treatment against an addiction to prescription drugs.
They were right. It wouldn’t be the same. Dare we that it’s actually better? Some 11.9 million people tuned in to the first episode on Sunday, and it was clear from the getgo that the chemistry between Holly and Dec was pitch-perfect: matey, jolly and the perfect foil to those tense Bushtucker Trials.
It’s part of Holly’s charm that traits which might seem annoying in another female presenter — her fear of a leaf in episode two, for example — are adored by viewers. “Holly being scared of a leaf would be me lol,” one tweeted. “Am loving her so much — it’s like she was doing the trial,” tweeted another.
That she adds a new strain of glamour to the show doesn’t hurt, either: you wouldn’t catch Dec in a £475 black lace Isabel Marant blouse or a £260 pair of Grenson hiking boots.
HIGH STREET SAVIOUR
When Marks & Spencer launched ‘Holly’s Must-Haves’ in September, the 20-piece collection sold out in record time, with the hottest items gone in under two minutes.
Holly didn’t even design garments such as the £49.50 leopard-print dress or the £69 pink coat: she merely ‘curated’ them from a selection. Not that it mattered: it was simply the latest example of what retailers have dubbed ‘the Holly effect’, whereby anything Willoughby wears sells in extraordinary volume.
Oasis, Topshop, Kurt Geiger, LK Bennett, Whistles and Office are just some of the brands to have benefited from her patronage, and while Karl Lagerfeld might baulk at having her on Chanel’s front row, that’s not the point.
The point is that Holly plays perfectly to the woman who likes fashion but doesn’t follow it slavishly, and is far more encouraged to experiment with leopard print after seeing it on a 37-year-old mum-of-three than on Kate Moss or Alexa Chung.
“It’s an honest way of seeing what an item of clothing looks like”, is how she explained her own selling power when I interviewed her for the January issue of Red magazine (out December 5). “Also, I’m not completely straight up and down. I’m curvy, so I think I’m sort of a normal shape, wearing normal clothes. That makes people go, ‘Oh yes, I might look like that in that.’” Indeed.
ACCIDENTAL INFLUENCER
Holly didn’t set out to be an influencer yet she has become one, shifting not just fashion but beauty products and other consumer items (as well as M&S, she is currently a brand ambassador for Garnier and Diet Coke — expect more to follow).
With 7.37 million followers on Twitter, 4.4m on Instagram, 2m This Morning viewers and the aforementioned record-breaking number of viewers tuning in to I’m A Celebrity, to say Holly has an impressive reach is an undersay statement. And she works it with savvy aplomb, tweeting and Instagramming photos of “today’s look”, fully tagged and credited, complete with the handy, searchable hashtag #hwstyle.
With half a million ‘likes’ and counting of her debut I’m A Celebrity look (tagged #hwjunglestyle), no wonder brands are falling over themselves to be endorsed by her. As the backlash against influencers grows (many have been accused of buying followers, using bots to increase their profiles and endorsing products they don’t believe in for a quick buck), Holly is perfectly placed to capitalise on the integrity that makes her so beloved of her fans.
THE BEST FRIEND EFFECT
But why, exactly, is she perceived to have integrity in the first place? Possibly because she is honest: about her fluctuating weight, her marriage (she’s happily married to businessman Dan Baldwin but admits it can be hard work) and her struggles to find the perfect work/life balance (she recently shelved the launch of her lifestyle brand, Truly, after realising she was spreading herself too thin).
It takes a specific kind of smart to pull off this honest, girl-next-door appeal when you live in a £3m house in Wandsworth and regularly show off its immaculate interior on your social feeds.
Yet despite being one of the highest paid presenters on TV, Holly comes over as almost freakishly down-to-earth: unthreatening, friendly and forever bringing the lolz.
Unusually for a woman whom men seem really to fancy (this, according to Schofield, as well as a quick canvas of my male friends), women love her too. It’s partly because she laughs a lot — at herself as much as anything else — but it’s mainly because we’ve all seen those p ***** -inthe-back-of-a-cab paparazzi shots. She may as well be wearing a T-shirt saying ‘Yes, I Have Three Kids And Need To Be Up At The Crack, But So What?’
Women also trust women who’ve had the same close friendship circle for years, and Holly’s inner circle of Nicole Appleton, Fearne Cotton and Emma Bunton is the dream team. Whenever the tequila comes out, you know they’ll be game enough to have a shot or three.