Ruth & Phil’s frosty NTAS win
Yeah, there’s definitely no feud here…
Forget the glamorous gowns and after-party gossip, there was one moment from last week’s National Television Awards that caught everyone’s attention. If you want a lesson in awkward moments, take a good look at Phillip Schofield and Ruth Langsford up onstage accepting an award as part of the This Morning team.
The pair – who have a welldocumented feud – stood next to each other as Holly thanked viewers for voting This Morning the winner in the Live Magazine Show category. Phil reached out to embrace Ruth in an incredibly uncomfortable show of apparent solidarity. Ruth’s perma-grin didn’t do much to hide her discomfort, with viewers taking to social media to point out the frostiness between them. Phil, 57, then took his turn on the mic before turning to Ruth and her husband and co-presenter, Eamonn, to say, “Your Fridays are fantastic. We love you so much.” Phil then gestured to Ruth and added, “You should say something, too.”
Some viewers suggested this was “staged” to give the impression there were no issues between the pair, and a TV source said of the moment, “Ruth has never been invited by Phil to speak during an NTAS acceptance speech before… It was clearly all staged by bosses at This Morning.”
One viewer noted, “Does anyone else sense tension between Phillip and Ruth? She made a point to say she loves being at the ITV studios every day after Phil thanked her for presenting ‘only’ on the Friday.”
The alleged rift between the presenters came to light last year when it was reported that Ruth, 59, had made an official complaint against Phil to ITV bosses. The complaint followed an incident in April 2019, which saw Phil interrupt Ruth as she was doing a link. The incident was said to have left Ruth “furious”.
The episode onstage at the NTAS didn’t seem to put a dampener on Phil and Holly’s night, however, as the pair presented This Morning the following day in their classic hungover style. They joked about their heavy night before sipping on their “hair of the dog” Bloody Marys. Fans weren’t so keen on the well-worn routine, with many calling it “boring” and saying the pair were faking it. ■