Holly will 'have the last laugh'

Following Phillip Schofield's thinly veiled accusations against her on his TV show, staying silent could be the best "revenge" for Holly Willoughby, a source tells new

- Shelley Spadoni

It’s been an explosive time in the world of television. Last week, Phillip Schofield made a shock return in the survival documentary Cast Away, after he stepped down from his This Morning job last May, following an affair with a young runner on the daytime show and being cast into the showbiz wilderness.

In the Channel 5 programme, a straggly, bearded Phil, 62, not only grappled with surviving solo on a deserted Madagascan island for 10 days as he tried to revive his battered TV career, but also issued some scathing putdowns to thinly veiled targets in the TV industry, at the same time.

One of those targets, it seems highly likely, was his former colleague Holly Willoughby. The long-standing relationship between the ex-This Morning co-hosts – who worked side by side for 14 years – all but disintegrated following the scandal last year. But rather than post any furious reaction on social media to Phillip’s comments, Holly, 43, has maintained a dignified silence throughout Phil’s headline-grabbing comeback.

And now, a source tells us that Holly’s stance towards her former colleague has always been to remain as “respectful as possible – even though she was the one left to ‘pick up the pieces and deal with the fallout’.”

They claim, “She was very hurt and betrayed by him as she felt he had lied to her. But she has never really slated him – so for him to make thinly veiled attacks on his new show was a real low.