Dermot O’Leary and Olly Murs reunited on Friday’s This Morning show and paid tribute to Caroline Flack after the two year anniversary of her death.
The pair were reminiscing about their days on The X Factor, after both presented the show before its final episode in 2018.
The 37-year-old ITV guest was close to the popular Love Island presenter, who took her own life in 2020 aged 40.
Dermot said: “I think what people forget is what a great presenter Caroline was. She just had it,” with co-star Alison Hammond agreeing: “She made it look effortless.”
Dermote described The X Factor studio as a “lovely warm place to work” as the pair looked over their years on the hit talent show.
Olly went on to say that he had learned a lot about working on TV from Caroline during the year they took over hosting duties on The X Factor from Dermot.
He said: “When we worked together she was the one that was the pro, so I just sat there and tried to take in all of the little things that she did.
“She was such a natural and obviously when I did Xtra Factor, it was so much fun.”
He continued: “I'm sure you guys have had it before, you have people that you look up to, I had Caroline and I had Dermot - people that really present TV shows at the highest levels.”
Olly became choked up as he added: “Caz was just brilliant. I get emotional talking about it, but she was just phenomenal to work with. She made it look so easy.
“God, we had our fights backstage, we had our moments together. But when the cameras came on, and we walked out together she just made it look so easy.
“Caroline was literally just laughing at me and just made me feel at ease the whole time.”
To mark the two year anniversary of Caroline's death, Olly took to social media to honour his former Xtra Factor co-host with a picture of him and Caroline cuddling, as he told his Instagram followers it was his most treasured picture of the two of them together.
“My favourite photo of us. The hug the smile the laughs I miss it all caz! 2 years ago we lost ya and it hurts everyday,” Olly wrote.
Further tributes came in, including one from Love Island successor Laura Whitmore, who shared a video of her and Caroline talking on the Love Island spin-off show Aftersun.
“This is how I like to think of Flack. Happy and not taking herself too seriously. We hung out a lot that year and I look back at it with such fun memories,” Laura wrote.
“This day is hard and a reminder that no one knows anyone else’s demons but today I like to think of all the good memories too. Cougar Mountain what a show that would have been,” she quipped.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
