Holly Willoughby, erstwhile BFF of Phillip Schofield, is giving off a deafening silence (so far) following his confession of an affair with a much younger colleague on This Morning.
While many people are feverishly speculating about Holly, we should keep in mind that she isn’t actually obliged to speak out about it the day after the news broke.
What and when did Holly Willoughby know?
Most speculation surrounding Holly right now concerns whether she knew Phillip was having an affair.
If she was aware – and we have no evidence that she was – let’s consider a few things before condemning her outright.
Firstly, if she was aware, then – yes – she was hiding this deceitful secret from Phillip’s family, to whom she was said to be close – but she’d hardly be the first best friend to do this. It is possible to keep a friend’s confidence while simultaneously disagreeing with what they are doing, even considering it appalling behaviour.
Did Holly have an obligation to expose the affair at work if she knew? Again, if workplace relationships aren’t banned at ITV and there was no apparent abuse of power, then why should she have spoken up? Whether Holly, if in that predicament, should have automatically regarded it as an abuse of power is a whole other conversation…
Has Holly only recently found out about the affair and this is behind the fallout with her sometime best buddy, and Phillip’s exit from This Morning?
This is entirely possible – although this does beg the question: what did Holly tell ITV to initiate her co-star’s This Morning departure?
When did ITV discover the truth about Phillip Schofield?
Presumably she didn’t divulge the affair, as ITV was planning to continue working with Phillip despite his departure from This Morning.
The statement from ITV yesterday, which confirmed the network had accepted his resignation from all shows, suggests they had only just learned of his deceit i.e. that he had engaged in an affair with a This Morning colleague.
However, the plot thickens here as multiple people who worked at ITV have claimed bosses had already been warned about Phillip Schofield’
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