Doyle pays tribute to Holly after shock exit
CRAIG Doyle has paid tribute to his former This Morning colleague Holly Willoughby following her shock exit from the show.
Ms Willoughby, 42, revealed on Tuesday she was quitting the ITV programme ‘for me and my family’ – days after an alleged ‘kidnap and murder plot’ emerged.
Stand-in host and Dubliner Craig Doyle called her decision to leave ‘heartbreaking’ but added ‘as Holly knows only too well, the show must go on’.
He continued: ‘On behalf of everyone here, in front and behind the camera, we just loved working with Holly. She made coming to work so much fun. We are really, really sad and we’re really going to miss her.’
Emotional opening credits included messages for the outgoing host, which said ‘we will miss you’, ‘family comes first’ and ‘goodbye Holly’.
‘She loved her time here’
Doyle told viewers: ‘We want to start by sending our love and well wishes to our Holly.
‘Last night, Holly made what we know would have been a heartbreaking decision to leave This Morning after 14 years.
‘She loved her time here but recent events, especially in the past week, have been hard to deal with and she is quite rightly putting her family first. On behalf of everyone here, in front and behind the camera, we just loved working with Holly she made coming to work so much fun. ‘We are really, really sad. ‘Holly said she will forever be proud of what she has achieved on the show and so are we.
‘But as Holly knows only too well, the show must go on.’
Ms Willoughby last appeared on the show last Wednesday with Josie Gibson, although viewers did not know it would be her final episode.
An ITV executive said she will be ‘missed enormously’ as she posted an emotional statement to her eight million Instagram followers.
Ms Willoughby wrote that it was an ‘honour to just be part of [This Morning’s] story’ over the past 14 years but that she has made ‘this decision for me and my family’.
ITV boss Kevin Lygo suggested that Ms Willoughby’s relationship with the channel isn’t over forever, saying: ‘We are sad that Holly is leaving This Morning, but respect her decision which we know will have been extremely difficult for her to make.
Her exit from the show comes after a former Pizza Hut worker was remanded in custody last week charged over an alleged plot to kidnap and murder Ms Willoughby. Gavin Plumb, 36, from Harlow, Essex, is accused of offences including soliciting to commit murder and incitement to commit kidnap in relation to the broadcaster.
Insiders have now told the Mail that the alleged plot pushed Ms Willoughby to quit, but added that the show had been in chaos since Mr Schofield’s exit.
This Morning was due to be relaunched in January with Ms Willoughby and a new host, sources say. Good Morning Britain’s Ben Shephard was believed to be the favourite to replace Mr Schofield.
The TV presenter pulled out of hosting This Morning last Thursday and her London home was reportedly being guarded by police after Plumb was arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to kidnap.