Katherine Ryan has dished out some hard truths to Holly Willoughby about the risky business of sharing her opinions with the world.
The former This Morning presenter has recently launched a new YouTube lifestyle and interview channel, where she invites celebrities to join her as she shares her tips and tricks for the home and sits down for meaningful chats with her guests.
The show, called Holly Willoughby Together, marks a radical career shift for the TV personality whose life has seen major upheaval in the past few years.
After leaving This Morning in 2023, her co-hosting gig with ITV’s Dancing on Ice also ended, and her attempt to launch a Netflix hosting career with Celebrity Bear Hunt was cut short when the show was cancelled.
Now she’s taking her fate into her own hands with a free-reign YouTube channel. But with more freedom comes the chance to really speak your mind.
In the new episode, she’s joined by comedian Katherine, who has made a name for herself by offering her hot takes on the biggest new stories around, from slating Strictly’s Thomas Skinner to commenting onLee Andrews’ disappearance.
Most recently, she jumped to Lily Allen’s defence as she tore down her ‘scumbag’ ex-Hollywood husband David Harbour.
Now, Holly has shared just how much she admired Katherine’s no-nonsense approach to sharing her thoughts.
‘You’re very open and you’re very honest and you just say exactly how you feel and I love that,’ she told the 43-year-old star.
‘I’m so terrified to have an opinion on anything,’ Holly admitted.
Katherine posed: ‘Do you think that that’s been, for lack of a better term, groomed into you because of the very high-profile jobs that you’ve had?’
The host conceded that might be the case, although added: ‘I definitely don’t like upsetting anybody. I think I’ve always been like that.’
Explaining that often she can’t help but ‘see both sides’ of an argument, she ultimately ends up ‘not really having an opinion on anything’.
She continued: ‘I think I’m probably so terrified to say anything wrong because if you get it wrong, the backlash is so huge.’
A seasoned opinion giver, Katherine tried to dispense some wisdom, agreeing that backlash is a risk ‘especially when people feel that they know you and they’re invested in the idea of you.’
Giving an inane example of Holly sharing she puts the tesbag in last, she explained: ‘People would feel that that was almost a betrayal: “That’s not the Holly Willoughby that I’ve constructed in my parasocial mind.”‘
In the end, Katherine offered a warning: ‘To see you deviate from [their version of you], I think for a lot of people would be really exciting cause they want to get to know you more, but you would risk alienating. It’s riskier for you.’
The pair got candid as the chat progressed, with Holly even telling Katherine, who is a mother of four, that she was ‘jealous’ of her when she was last pregnant (her youngest is now eight months old).
‘When I heard you were pregnant and having another one, I was like: “Maybe I should, maybe I should.” I was so jealous that you were doing it because I was like: “I should have done it.”‘
Holly has three children, ranging between 10 and 17, and has found it tough seeing them transition into the teenage stage.
‘I feel the pulling away and I find it really hard, I find that bit really, really difficult,’ she shared.
Meanwhile, Katherine has ruled out going on Celebrity Traitors. When asked by Holly why she wouldn’t join the cast, she said: ‘You lose yourself in the game, you’re away from your children for a long period, and they only let you have max two glasses of wine per day.’
Whether she changes her mind remains to be seen, although she quipped that she would love to see Holly as a Traitor in the show and get a chance to flex her devious side.