AMBITION
. . . or how new Jungle queen Holly Willoughby became the highest paid female TV presenter this side of the Atlantic. Her next move? Taking on Gwyneth Paltrow!
TV’S ANSWER TO FRED AND GINGER
THE Hollywood pairing of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire used to be explained thus: ‘He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal.’ This is a view held by some at ITV about the pairing of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning.
The other important thing about Holly’s presenting style — lots of giggles and tears — is that it allows Phil, 56, to always take the lead.
Phil co-presented with Fern Britton from 2002 to 2009, but she left after learning he was paid vastly more than her. He said of Fern in 2013: ‘We’re not in touch now.’
Holly joined as ‘his hire’, having been his sidekick on Dancing On Ice. She said last year: ‘There’s no way I would even have been considered for This Morning if it hadn’t been for Phil. He pushed for me to get the job in the first place. I totally owe him everything.’
In the early days, she was very much the junior partner and was paid €220,000 a year less than him — rectified with a pay rise last August.
In 2016, they appeared on the show in the previous night’s outfits after winning a National Television Award.
Some feel ‘Scofe’, as he is known, is showing some signs of being rattled by Holly’s popularity. Certainly, there have been some desperate measures on his Instagram, where in April he was pictured flashing his naked derriere on holiday. He’s also recently stepped up his TV commercial work.
But Holly has said: ‘We never have an argument and now we’ve got to the stage where we’ll say the same things at the same time on screen, in the same way. The only other person I’ve got that with is my sister.’
STAR AGENCY THAT’S LIKE A FAMILY
HOLLY is part of the ‘James Grant Family’, the same agency as Ant and Dec. Just like herself and Phillip, they joined the agency when they were kids’ TV stars, before being catapulted into prime time.
Other stablemates include Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, also of This Morning; Zoe Ball (Strictly Come Dancing); Tess Daly (Strictly) and her husband Vernon Kay (formerly Family Fortunes); Amanda Holden (Britain’s Got Talent); Davina McCall, Gabby Logan, Helen Skelton, Christine Lampard, Julia Bradbury and Clare Balding; plus Peter Jones (Dragons’ Den); Fearne Cotton (Celebrity Juice); Scarlett Moffatt and Stephen Mulhern (both of Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway).
They often socialise ‘in-house’. Last year, for instance, Holly posted an Instagram image of her, Ant and Dec and Peter Jones hanging out at Holly’s €3million house in Barnes, West London.
And last summer, Holly joined Phillip Schofield at his holiday home in Portugal, with the ubiquitous Jones. The snow season saw Holly and her family spend a week skiing with him again.
When one James Grant star absents themselves from their TV show, their stand-in is usually a fellow member of the agency.
HEAD FOR BUSINESS AND A DRAGON PAL
CANNY Holly has joined forces in business with Peter Jones, who is worth €530million. She set up the Truly Group in September 2016 with Tara Capp, Jones’s partner, as one of her co-directors and Jones himself as company secretary.
(Jones is also in business with Holly’s husband Dan as chairman of Hungry Bear Media.)
Launching in September, Truly will be a lifestyle brand offering advice and items to buy in six categories: home, fashion, baby, wellness, living and travel. Holly has been shooting the range over the summer. The website reveals: ‘It’s about beautiful things that are of the highest quality, surprisingly affordable and designed to make your life easier.’
Her baby care book, Truly Happy Baby, was the bestselling parenting title of 2016 and is thought to have netted her €55,000. She has also co-written children’s fiction with her sister Kelly.
Previously, she had a clothing line at Very, a homeware range at Bhs and bedding at Dunelm.
POLISHING THAT ‘NICE-AS-PIE’ IMAGE
TAKING over from Ant McPartlin on I’m A Celebrity, Holly has gone to great lengths to avoid any impression of ambition at someone else’s expense. She said: ‘I love Ant and want to send him my best wishes and support for a continued recovery. These are big shoes, not to fill, but just to keep warm for a little bit.
‘Honestly, I’m a huge fan of I’m A Celebrity and actually feel like I’ve won a competition to go and hang out on my favourite show.’
Launched into a TV landscape ruled by ‘ladettes’, Holly was very much a lady.
She told an early interviewer: ‘You always feel guilty saying “nice” because it is linked very closely to “boring”. But when I sit down with my children, or grandchildren, and get out the big box of my life, I can show them really lovely things and be really proud they’re going to watch Dancing On Ice.
‘Some of these other girls are going to go: “Oh, here’s my exposé of me sleeping with this footballer.” Or: “Here’s a picture of me getting out of a car with no knickers or getting wrecked.” It’s not a nice thing, is it?’
She will check with her publicist before confirming anything about contracts and figures. Interviewers tend to report that she is slightly less warm and confiding in person than on the This Morning sofa.
Publicity is handled by DawBell, which looks after Paul McCartney and James Corden.
Her image is tended by super-stylist Angie Smith, thought to be paid by ITV to find her the right clothes to wear. Smith’s fees are allegedly around €110,000 a year. Holly posts Instagram pictures of her outfit every day — with the result that the clothes will often sell out within hours.
However, she is careful to keep her This Morning wardrobe deliberately accessible, choosing clothes from High Street retailers.
In a similar vein, her endorsements are all of affordable items — inexpensive face creams, cheap and cheerful bedding, and so on. After all, no one likes a girl-next-door to get too big for her well-paid boots.