Dermot O’Leary has lifted the lid on a secret disagreement he had with Alison Hammond after they were ‘thrown together’ to present This Morning.
The 48-year-old former Big Brother ’s Little Brother host and 46-year-old former Big Brother contestant Alison were unveiled as the new Friday morning presenters of This Morning back in January.
And the pair were then quickly placed in front of cameras to host their once-per-week slot without much time to strike up a rapport.
The slap dash approach to casting led to friction between Dermot and Alison – with the pair quickly discovering they were doing things on air that irritated the other.
Speaking to Fabulous magazine, Dermot said he and Alison soon decided they needed a chat to clear the air when their initial pairing failed to gel.
Explaining the awkwardness between them when they first started co-hosting the show together, Dermot said: “We never got to pilot, we’d never read a script through, we didn’t even have lunch together.
“We literally met for the first time in 15 years or so and that morning we presented two-and-a-half hours of live television together.
“The idea that there wouldn’t be a period of getting to know each other is insane.”
Saying viewers wouldn’t believe them if they were acting like life long best friends, Dermot said he and Alison soon built their friendship by being blunt with each other behind the scenes.
He said: “We both did something that the other didn’t like – nothing major – but after it happened we looked at each other, and I said: ‘You didn’t like it when I did that, did you?’ And she said no, she didn’t.
“And I said: ‘OK, well I didn’t like it when you did that thing.’
“And we both laughed, because now we knew. The most important thing is to find out what annoys the other and make sure you don’t do it again.”
Dermot went on to say Alison is now “like a sister” to him and that they are both now loving working together.
Last week, This Morning won the Daytime category award at the National Television Awards – with main hosts Holly Willoughby and Phil Schofield attending the awards.
Alison had shared her excitement about the awards on Thursday night when they were hosted, sharing a glamorous photo of herself on Instagram as she prepared to tune in from home.
She wrote online at the time: “Nta Ready, but not at the #ntas come on @thismorning !!”
The following morning, Alison celebrated the show’s win with a confetti-fuelled celebration live on air and complete with a dramatic acceptance speech.
While Dermot joked it would have been bad for the two of them if the show lost the year he and Alison began presenting Friday's shows.
