Holly Willoughby’s rumoured tension with her longtime friend and co-star Phillip Schofield reportedly began three years ago, after she severed ties with her former talent agency.
It comes amid reports that the This Morning co-hosts are “not as close as they once were: and now barely speak off-camera”.
It has now been claimed that the rift started when Holly began to “quietly distance” herself from Phillip.
The co-stars were once part of the same management – YMU Group – before Holly split from them to start her own agency Roxy Management.
However, her tie to her old management became embroiled in a legal battle over her future earnings.
The case was settled out of court, with Holly earning £1million from them.
Phillip has stayed with the agency and is even a shareholder, which began the division between the two.
A source told MailOnline: “Holly quietly started to distance herself from Phil back in 2020. The legal issues rumbled on for 18 months but Holly fought for what was right.
“Ultimately, Phil chose to stay and Holly chose to leave, it wasn’t easy at the time.”
It comes as The Mirror claimed that ITV is prepared to drop Phil from the show if viewers “no longer believe in the chemistry” between him and Holly.
They were said to be left furious by his unsanctioned statement which addressed the alleged rift between him and Holly, and believed it “made things a million times worse”.
A source said: “He will think he can tough it out, like he has previous controversies such as Queue-gate. But to be honest, it’s out of his hands. If the viewers don’t believe in him and Holly, something’s got to give – and that will most likely be Phil. It’s a massive week for them both.”
If the duo face a backlash from viewers, it remains to be seen how quickly ITV would act to make changes to the line-up.
Their contracts are up at the end of the year, with renewal negotiations set to start in the summer.
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