Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has removed all traces of his ex-best friend Holly Willoughby from his Instagram page, following their recent fall out.
After co-presenting the show together for over a decade, their close relationship came to an end after Holly discovered that Phillip had lied to her when he publicly admitted to having an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a much younger ITV colleague in May.
Phillip’s Instagram page, which boasts 2.9million followers, once featured his close bond with Holly in several social media snapshots showing them enjoying time outside of the ITV daytime studio.
However, Holly and Phillip, who are no longer on speaking terms, appear to have now completely cut ties.
A source told The Daily Mail that Phillip is trying to “move on” from his former relationship with Holly, which led to his decision to remove all his old photos with her.
“Holly and Phil used to post pictures together for fun, they were significant parts of each other’s lives, and they enjoyed showing their viewers how close they were,” the insider explained.
“The fact that Phil seems to have taken them down from his page speaks volumes about how he feels towards Holly. He appears to have moved on completely now and is attempting to leave Holly behind.”
While Holly continues to follow her co-star and former close friend on Instagram, Phillip has recently unfollowed Holly on the platform.
In his first interview following his affair scandal, Phillip disclosed that he had lost his “best friend” when he chose to hide the truth from her.
He told The Sun: “I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down. Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you’.”
“She didn’t reply, and I understand why she didn’t reply, as well. So yeah. If anyone is in any way linking Holly to this; that is Âabsolutely, wholly untrue. I had no feud with Holly. She is my TV sister.”
He continued: “But quite rightly, when I am in the middle of a s**t show with bad press over something where I have done nothing wrong — in fact, I did everything right — it’s a witch hunt. And that strips that (friendship) away.”
“Quite rightly, she is going to take a step back and think, ‘I have to step back from this’, and I understand that completely. As we see now, this is a vicious game, and the last thing you want is for something to stick on you. It was becoming bigger than the people we had on the show. I understand that.”
