Caption: Eamonn Holmes savages former This Morning co-star Phillip Schofield amid shock TV return
credit: REX / CHANNEL 5
Eamonn Holmes has made his feelings heard loud and clear about Phillip Schofield, as the former This Morning host returned to TV on Channel 5’s Cast Away.
The Northern Irish broadcaster, 64, gave a sensational interview last year after Schofield, 62, admitted to an ‘unwise but not illegal affair’ with a runner.
He branded Schofield a ‘narcissist’, claimed he would have ‘playtime’ with the younger employee and alleged Holly Willoughby, 43, and Schofield ‘didn’t know people’s names behind the scenes of This Morning’.
He also said he was ‘ashamed’ of how he supported Schofield when he came out as gay, saying he felt ‘used’ and described his coming out episode a ‘performance’.
Now, as Schofield has returned to screens and vowed to ‘say whatever I want about whatever I want’, Eamonn has claimed he’s ‘proud’ to have ‘thrown him under the bus’, and even compared him to disgraced broadcaster Huw Edwards, was spared jail just weeks ago after admitting to accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.
The GB News presenter fumed: ‘He fertles with an underage boy, and you can work out when it started or not, there’s all sorts of talk as to when these relationships started or not.
‘This man is addicted to fame, absolutely addicted to fame.
‘Funny, nobody is going to put Huw Edwards on a desert island and say, “Huw, tell us about your experiences.” But they will put Phillip Schofield on.’
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Eamonn previously presented This Morning (Picture: Shutterstock)
Schofield meanwhile has declared he’s ending all his relationships with ‘toxic people’ and hit out at his former employer ITV.
And now the reasons behind Schofield and Eamonn’s bad blood has been reportedly exposed, with claims that the GB News star hasn’t been able to stand being in the same room as his former colleague in years.
‘They would cross the road to avoid having to even look at each other,’ one source said, calling their feud: ‘the b*******t, most vicious fallout in television.’
The insider added to MailOnline: ‘They hate one another. Eamonn cannot stand Phil, and while he never used to talk about it, now he just doesn’t care. He thinks Phil is a disgrace and a liar.
‘Phil keeps quiet about it all but the feeling is mutual.’
It’s claimed their feud began with an incident in 2019 (Picture: S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
The publication reports that their feud began with an incident in 2019, when Eamonn’s then-wife Ruth Langsford filed an official complaint against Schofield after she was cut off on air.
Then in 2020, Schofield came out as gay on This Morning, with Ruth and Eamonn both in the studio to ‘support’ him.
An insider has now claimed: ‘Eamonn felt very used by Phil for the coming out scenes. He and Ruth were told that they had to be there and it all looked like they were best friends.
‘Eagle-eyed viewers at the time said that it was fake; now we know it was. Eamonn despises Schofield and has for a very, very long time.’
Eamonn has made a series of sensational claims about Phillip and This Morning (Picture: Getty)
This comes after a source told the Daily Mail last year: ‘Phillip had the red carpet treatment. He and Holly were seen as stars. All TV is a hierarchy and they were paid far more. Eamonn chafed against it.
‘His rider [the requests a star makes for their dressing room] was a block of inexpensive cheese, but Phillip would get lovely wines brought in from Farr Vintners.
‘Eamonn couldn’t see how someone like him, a proper journalist, would come beneath the bloke who was in the broom cupboard with Gordon The Gopher.’
This isn’t the first occasion that Eamonn has spoken out against Schofield.
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Schofield resigned from ITV after admitting the ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair (Picture: BBC)
In September 2022, he lashed out at the two former This Morning hosts over queuegate, calling them ‘arrogant’ despite the pair denying that they had jumped ahead of the queue to see the late Queen Elizabeth II lying in state, and insisting that they had ‘respected’ the rules laid out for members of the media.
An external review into This Morning, carried out by Jane Mulcahy KC on behalf of ITV found the channel made ‘considerable efforts’ to find out the truth about an alleged affair between Schofield and a runner in 2019, but was not able to find evidence about the rumours.
Schofield ‘reluctantly declined’ to take part in the probe because of ‘the risk to his health’, the report in December 2023 said.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Eamonn and Schofield’s reps for comment.
A version of this article was originally published on June 10, 2023.
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