Star lined up for Ant’s role

BY EMMELINE SAUNDERS BOSSES on I’m A Celebrity reckon Holly Willoughby is the ideal choice to replace Ant McPartlin after he pulled out of this year’s series.

Insiders claim ITV producers could be set to approach the This Morning star, 37, to join Declan Donnelly down under.

A show source said: “Holly is very close friends with Ant and Dec and has been backing Ant since his troubles. Ant and Dec both love her and they’d be thrilled if she got the job.”

This will be the first time in the show’s 16 years that Ant and Dec are not fronting it together.

An ITV source said there had been no formal discussions with Dec on a co-host and they will take place next month.

Other big names, including Stephen Mulhern and Scarlett Moffatt, were also mooted. But the source said: “Stephen was in the running but he’d never do it.

“Producers feel whoever replaces Ant needs to be a woman to make a difference, or it would just look like a like-for-like replacement.”

Ant, 42, pulled out this week, saying he still needed time to recover following his rehab battle.

He was convicted of drinkdriving in April after a crash the previous month. His 2019 series of Saturday Night Takeaway with Dec has also been axed.

ITV said: “An announcement on I’m A Celebrity plans will be made in due course.” Mulhern & Moffatt