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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Victoria Johns

Holly Willoughby returns to Instagram for the first time since Phil quit This Morning

Holly Willoughby has returned to social media for the first time since Phillip Schofield quit This Morning.

The mum-of-three, 42, who took a two-week break from the show, returned to screens on Monday, but has not shared anything on her personal Instagram account since May 18.

Today, Holly marked a return to Instagram, sharing a photo of herself in the floral frock she'll don for the show later, which she will host with Josie Gibson.

Holly had tears in her eyes yesterday when she addressed the furore surrounding Phil as she returned to the show they had presented together since 2009.

Looking straight at the camera, wearing an angelic white frock, she said: "Hi there. Good morning. Josie, thank you for being here. Right, deep breath.

"Firstly, are you OK? It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.

"And I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have - shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what's been going on, and full of questions.

"You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV, and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.

"And it's equally hard to see the toll that it's taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone."

As she hugged co-host Josie, Holly smiled as she carried on with the show she's fronted for so many years.

However, fans had mixed reviews over her statement with some branding it 'insincere.'

Mamta Saha, who is a British Psychological Society-accredited analyst, told The Mirror there were a series of giveaways that made the Wylde Moon guru come across as disingenuous, starting with her opening exhale.

"Holly's message comes across as inauthentic. Her exhalation at the start is just not long enough for someone who claims to have been impacted by all of this," Mamta said.

However, others, including Piers Morgan thought Holly did as well as she could under the difficult circumstances surrounding her former friend.

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