EAMONN Holmes and Phillip Schofield’s feud has been raging long before both their departures from ITV.
The two broadcasters were once the face of This Morning – with Phil hosting alongside Holly Willoughby.
4
Eamonn Holmes and Phillip Schofield’s feud stems back yearsCredit: GB News
4
Eamonn pictured hugging Schofe after he came out as gay on This Morning in 2020Credit: REX
4
Sources say the two broadcasters can’t stand each other – and would even cross the road to avoid bumping into one anotherCredit: Instagram
4
Their feud kicked off when Ruth made an official complaint against Schofe to ITVCredit: Rex
Eamonn, 64, then fronted Friday and half-term additions of the flagship programme with now estranged wife Ruth Langsford.
But despite working on the same show, sources say Phil and Eamonn couldn’t bear to be in the same room as each other.
MailOnline report during a Christmas lunch organised for This Morning staff, Eamonn and Ruth failed to turn up.
However, tensions boiled over in 2019 when Schofe cut off Ruth, 64, while she was in the middle of a live link, teasing what was coming up on Loose Women.
The incident ultimately led to Ruth making a complaint over his behaviour to ITV.
Previously speaking about it, Eamonn said: “Phillip is renowned for snubbing people.
“He’s very passive-aggressive. It’s up to Ruth to say how she felt, but I was feeling hurt for her. No one would have snubbed me like that.
“I have a good Belfast street fighter in me… I would be direct. I don’t go for presenters who think they have a special privilege or aura or influence.”
Eamonn and Ruth were there to support Phil when he came out as gay on This Morning in 2020.
Ruth Langsford returns to This Morning sofa for the first time since split with Eamonn Holmes
However a source told MailOnline: “Eamonn felt very used by Phil for the coming out scenes.
“He and Ruth were told that they had to be there and it all looked like they were best friends. Eagle-eyed viewers at the time said that it was fake; now we know it was. Eamonn despises Schofield and has for a very, very long time.”
Ruth and Eamonn were then axed from This Morning in 2021, making way for Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary.
After Schofe admitted to his ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a young runner, Eamonn unleashed fury on GB News.
The b*******t, most vicious fallout in television
Source
He said: “Ruth and I particularly looked after him. He never once talked to us about any relationship, but we knew he was in a bad way fragilely.
“There’s an incredible duty of care that needs to go towards that young man.”
He added that Phil was a “a complete and utter dyed-in-the-wool narcissist”.
A source said the pairs feud runs so deep they would “cross the road to avoid having to even look at each other”.
“The b*******t, most vicious fallout in television,” they added to MailOnline.
Earlier this week Eamonn snapped at his GB News co-star Isabel Webster pointed out that Phil ‘hadn’t done anything illegal’.
He replied: “Why is that even relevant? He met the boy when he was 15?”
Eamonn added: “I am one of the people who threw him under the bus. I am very proud to have done it. This man is addicted to fame. Absolutely addicted to fame.”
Cast Away verdict
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Philip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Philip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
