DOUBLE TROUBLE ‘WE'RE ON THE BRINK OF TEARS ALL THE TIME'

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY AND PHILLIP SCHOFIELD TALK ABOUT HOW THIS MORNING HAS KEPT THEM GOING THROUGH TOUGH TIMES AND THE CHANGES THEY’VE MADE FOR THE BETTER

- JENNIFER RODGER

In a year of massive change and challenges, some things that have kept steady are the smiles, laughter and amazing stories presented to us by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning. They’ve raised our spirits, and not let the bad days get them down. “I knew we were doing something important,” says Holly, sitting down to talk with Phil about their experiences over the last year.

Phil, who has been presenting the show since 2002, agrees and adds, “That’s exactly what we’re here for, that’s what we do.”

The 59-year-old also reflects on another difficult time on This Morning. “When Diana [Princess of Wales] died in that tunnel and This Morning was on the next day, Richard [Madeley] and Judy [Finnigan] held onto the nation’s hands with dear Denise [Robertson] and had a big open phone-in and got the absolute pulse of the nation – the feeling and the grief, and weren’t afraid to show the grief. That, in a microcosm, is what This Morning is and can be. And then you just explode that and do it for a year,” he says.

Here, Holly, 40, and Phil open up about being frequently on the brink of tears, their worry for their own families – with Phil only reuniting with his mum Pat earlier this month after more than a year apart – and how the last 12 months has made them make changes to their own lives for the better...

How has this year changed you?