I’m done modelling underwear... I’m a mum of three and we don’t need to see that
TV’S HOLLY CALLS TIME ON STRIPPING OFF
There is enough lurking about online to keep my fans busy for a long time HOLLY WILLOUGHBY SAYS SHE WON’T STRIP DOWN TO HER UNDIES ANY MORE
THERE’S no denying the camera loves Holly Willoughby – and the feeling is clearly mutual.
Whether it’s on the red carpet, in a sexy photoshoot or the regular selfies she posts on Instagram, she knows the power of a good picture.
But now fans will have to get used to seeing less of the This Morning presenter, 36, as she calls time on posing in her underwear – something she’s been doing for half her life.
Recently an advert she did as an 18-year-old resurfaced on YouTube, showing the young Holly posing in her bra for Pretty Polly.
But that’s all in the past – and now Holly insists she will not be modelling lingerie again.
She says she would not even design her own range of swimwear, like fellow TV presenter Myleene Klass, 38, in case she had to model it.
The mum of three, who posed in leather lingerie for the final cover of FHM in January last year, says: “Lads mags are kind of gone now aren’t they?
“If you look in FHM I was very welldressed, but I think probably that was really a way to say goodbye to all of that.
“I’ve had three children. There is enough lurking about online to keep my fans busy for a long time.
“Never say never, but I really think now I’m a mum of three... I don’t think we need to see that anymore.
“That’s the thing that has always put me off doing something like designing underwear or swimwear – because you would have to wear it and that’s always made me go ‘No’. “I don’t think I’d ever do that now.” However, that is not to say Holly – mum to Harry, seven, Belle, five, and Chester, two – is at all regretful about her past modelling.
Of the Pretty Polly ad, she says: “It’s nice to have those things. If you can’t do that when you’re younger... and, you know, I did look so young. I had my natural-colour hair.
“It’s great to look back on those things and remember. You know, when I’m a grandma I can look back and go ‘Look, this is what I used to do’.
“I think it’s really nice to have those things, I liked it. I really liked it.”
Holly, who presents ITV’s This morning alongside Phillip Schofield – is back on TV tonight in sports quiz Play to the Whistle. The show is a real family affair, as it is produced by her husband Dan Baldwin – and their children are helping her preparations to host it.
Holly says: “My youngest son’s already obsessed with watching the football and going out and playing football.
“So we have it on screen all the time, or we’re taking them to football, running them back, cleaning football boots – it’s kind of, ‘This is my life now, so I might as well embrace it’.
“He’s two and he’s already Arsenal. I mean, he had an Arsenal baby-grow from the moment he was born.”
However, Holly admits sport is still not a specialist subject for her.
But she insists viewers who share her lack of obsession with sport can still enjoy the light-hearted quiz, which also stars comedian Bradley Walsh, 56, and ex-Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard.
She says: “I think my knowledge of sport is very limited. I think you can watch Play to the Whistle and not be a sports fan. If you like tuning into panel shows where people are having a real laugh and there’s lots of fun things to see, then it works on both levels, I think.”
In fact, she sees her lack of immersion in the subject as an advantage.
She says: “I don’t have a huge sporting knowledge. I’m not afraid to go ‘What is that?’. We had James Anderson the cricketer, the fastest England bowler ever and we were talking about trashtalking – what do they call it... Sledging.
“So I didn’t know about this, we were
shown a clip and I didn’t think cricket was like that at all. I thought it was all very polite, but on all accounts it’s horrendous what they say to each other.
“Anyway, my husband produces it, and I said to him ‘I’m going to ask what it is because I don’t even know’.
“And sometimes I think when you’ve got people in sport working on a sports show they sometimes take for granted what you as a viewer know.
“Because then we can all learn together. It’s the second series and everybody feels a little bit more comfortable with each other.
“That means everyone feels a little bit more comfortable to have a bit of fun with each other. It’s been brilliant. It’s been a riot.”
Holly and husband Dan – who also work together on Celebrity Juice – first met on the set of children’s game show Ministry Of Mayhem in 2004, but kept their relationship quiet at first.
They celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this year and are planning a special trip.
Holly says: “We’re going away on our own, without the children, for the first time since our honeymoon.
“We have got a week away and we are just going to go and have a lovely 10-year wedding anniversary together. We really have a good laugh together and I don’t want to sound like a massive cliché but we get on really well.
“I rely on him for a lot of stuff. I think we just work better as a pair than we do apart so that helps.”
Given that she is on This Morning, Celebrity Juice and Play to the Whistle – and even managed a small part in Miss Marple for her birthday – is there anything Holly still wants to accomplish on TV?
She admits she thinks she would struggle with serious acting – though she has not ruled out a cameo in a
When I’m a grandma I can say, ‘This is what I used to do’ HOLLY HAS NO REGRETS ABOUT MODEL PHOTOS
soap one day, as well as considering other challenges later in life. She says: “I did speak to Sharon Marshall on This Morning the other day, because she writes for Emmerdale and I said ‘What would you cast me in?’.
“She said she would cast me in Hollyoaks as the teacher who has an affair with one of her pupils.
“That would be a dramatic role – you’re right, I should do it. I don’t know, maybe one day.
“Documentary-wise I would like to something like that one day but I think it’s something you need to invest a lot of time in – and at the moment time is not something I have tons of. Eventually, I think that would be a nice place to go.
“Hopefully This Morning doesn’t end any time soon. But eventually, once that time is finished, I can do passion projects and focus on things you really like and travel a bit when the kids are older.
“I love travelling – when I was younger I used to travel loads and I loved it. But since the kids have come along I don’t really want to do it, I don’t want to leave them. So I think that’s another phase in my life.”
Play to the Whistle returns to ITV tonight at 9pm.