Holly Willoughby: TV presenter quits This Morning after 'kidnap plot'

Holly Willoughby has announced she will not return to present "This Morning" after a tumultuous year. 

The 42-year-old, who presented ITV's flagship mid-morning programme for 14 years, said leaving the show would be a "difficult goodbye" but she needed to take the decision for "me and my family".

The background 

The decision comes a week after an Essex man was charged with plotting to kidnap and murder Willoughby. But her exit from the show also stems from "a difficult several months" including being "bruised" by the scandal that engulfed her long-time co-presenter Phillip Schofield and forced him to leave the show in May, said Ed Power in The Telegraph.

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While her departure in search of a fresh start" is "entirely understandable", he added, "This Morning" is on the "back foot" following the recent controversy and it will need to be "rebuilt from the ground up" having made for "increasingly tense viewing" this year.

A source told The Times that the kidnapping plot was the "straw that broke the camel's back", and the decision to quit ultimately "was a result of the row at the show this year". 

A "television staple" for years, Willoughby's long-running presenting partnership with Schofield came to an abrupt end after his "sudden fall from grace", said The Independent. The pair were rumoured to have a strained relationship in May 2023, but their time together on "This Morning" came to an immediate end when Schofield was forced to quit having admitted to lying about having an affair with a younger male colleague at ITV. Willoughby said it had been "very hurtful" to be lied to when she had asked Schofield about the rumours.

Schofield's relationship has prompted an "external investigation into the facts" with "allegations of harassment, bullying and discrimination more widely within the show" being considered, said The Times.

The latest

Willoughby had not been on air since she pulled out of the show last Thursday when shopping centre security guard Gavin Plumb was arrested for conspiring with a person in the US to travel to the UK and help carry out the presenter's kidnap and murder.

After producers at "This Morning" were made aware of the arrest on Thursday, Willoughby pulled out "shortly before she was due to go on air", said Sky News, and has since been at home with "round-the-clock security and support" provided by the police and ITV.

Willoughby's departure from "This Morning" also raises questions on "whether ITV would call time on the programme" and if it can "survive" the exit of its two long-standing presenters, the paper added. The show has recently "averaged about 600,000 viewers" which is down from "more than one million in its prime", but an ITV daytime executive "dismissed the suggestion" that "This Morning" would end, telling The Times that "the team will ride it out".

The reaction

Willoughby's exit from "This Morning" was "inevitable and necessary" said Power in The Telegraph. Though she has been "protective of her privacy" during her career, the kidnapping plot has shown that "fame has become more toxic than ever" and has "increasingly dangerous real-world consequences".

Her colleagues at ITV have "rallied behind her in the wake of her shock exit", said the Daily Mail, while Schofield reportedly "broke the ice" and contacted Willoughby for the first time since his departure after being "horrified" by the allegations about the kidnap plot.

Whether or not Willoughby will return to television as a presenter remains unclear, though an ITV statement said the broadcaster looked forward to working with her "in the future". There's a chance she could keep a "low profile in the short term", added Power, but it is "unlikely she will leave TV altogether". She is still the presenter of ITV's "Dancing on Ice", which is scheduled to return in 2024.

For ITV, it could be an "opportune moment" to refresh the format of "This Morning", which, having been on air since 1988, could do with "a refresh", said the BBC. The "brand and name recognition" for the show is "extremely high", but even without Willoughby, rescuing the show "is still perfectly possible" even if ITV will “now have to rethink its strategy".