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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Jessica Sansome

Holly Willoughby divides viewers with her appearance as ITV The Games stirs up row

Holly Willoughby divided fans as she returned live to ITV with the third episode of The Games. The new competitive sporting show has had viewers talking as it airs every night this week.

The Games, which is hosted by Holly and Freddie Flintoff with Alex Scott as a reporter and Chris Kamara on commentary, has taken 12 celebrities out of their comfort zones and away from their jobs as actors, newsreaders and singers to be trained to compete in Olympic-style events.

From diving to hurdles, weight lifting to the canoe slalom, the six female and six male famous faces are doing it all, racking up points as they go before a male and a female winner is chosen during the last live show, which airs on Friday (May 13).

READ MORE: Martin Lewis has fans agreeing as he wades in on ITV The Games commentary

During Wednesday night's show, Holly and Freddie were back at Crystal Palace alongside Youtube Young Filly and their expert guests to help digest the latest sporting action.

Prior to the latest edition of the programme, 41-year-old Holly took to Instagram to offer a glimpse at her latest outfit before appearing on the telly. The blonde TV star beige braided leather dress by Massimo Dutti which would set anyone back £369

However, it wasn't to everyone's taste with @anne_jones6 commenting: "Why are you dressed as ravioli." @nkyjp237 also went down a pasta theme, writing: "Why are you dressed as a lasagne sheet."

But others thought otherwise. @ebarmby said: "Absolutely love your dress tonight." @beautywillsxx commented: "This outfit is literally stunning."

@alysonkerry replied: "Fab dress holly u look amazing. @brownsjewellery added: "One of our fave fashion icons looking beautiful as always! need this dress."

Holly's outfit wasn't the only distraction as those tuning in for the episode saw viewers let in on some backstage drama between the contestants. Chelcee Grimes and Phoenix Gulzar-Brown have been showing their competitiveness and things seemed to boil over after Phoenix, who is the daughter of Spice Girl Mel B, pipped Chelcee to the win in the pool (which aired on Tuesday night's show).

Backstage footage showed Chelcee claiming she had finished ahead of Phoenix in the women's 50m breaststroke event, showing a clip on her phone trying to prove she touched the wall of the pool first. However, Phoenix hit back and accused Chelsea of not playing “fair” during the first hurdles event.

Phoenix won in the women's javelin after a bit of a row with Chelcee (ITV)

Later, Holly made a cheeky dig following the women's javelin event. as Mel B's daughter scored an impressive 22.46m against her fellow celebs, with Christine McGuinness close behind her with 20.05m. Emmerdale's Rebecca Sarker came in third place, followed by Lucrezia Millarini, Chelcee Grimes and Olivia Attwood.

Back in the studio, the This Morning star said: "Well that is a brilliant result for Phoenix there who won the women's javelin with a throw of 22.46 metres." Holly proceeded to put her hand to her earpiece as she pretended to see if her score was correct. She joked: "Just checking Chelcee is happy with that? Yes, she's happy with that."

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