Eamonn Holmes has aired his views about his former employees ITV.
The GB News presenter has also taken aim at his former co-host Phillip Schofield - branding the This Morning star "passive aggressive".
In his new interview, the broadcaster also states that while he may be "male and stale", he still has a lot to offer the world of TV.
Eamonn, 62, co-hosted the Friday instalment of This Morning for 15 years with his wife Ruth Langsford, 61, before they were replaced on the ITV show by Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary last year.
The Irish presenter now presents the breakfast show at GB News with co-host Isabel Webster, but has been opening up about his exit from the ITV family.
Chatting with Daily Mail's Weekend magazine, Eamonn claims his former channel made it appear that he wanted to walk away from ITV when he had in fact been dropped.
"They're sly. They didn't want to announce that I'd been dropped because it would adversely affect audience figures, so they made it look as if I'd walked away from them rather than the other way round," the journalist sensationally revealed.
"They had a chat with my agent and announced that I was going to GB News when they'd done no more than ask if I'd be interested in joining them."
A spokesperson for ITV told the Mirror on Saturday: "This isn't a version of events that we recognise and as we have said before we wish Eamonn all of the very best."
On the topic of diversity, they added: "As we have laid out in our Diversity Acceleration plan we are committed to improving representation both on and off screen and we publicly report on our progress against our commitments and targets."
Elsewhere in his chat, Eamonn also took issue with his former This Morning colleague Phillip Schofield.
The star called out his fellow presenter out for cutting short wife Ruth short in the middle of a trailer for Loose Women on This Morning in 2019.
"I only had about three more words to say," a hurt-looking Ruth said.
Eamonn stated that "Phillip is renowned for snubbing people" and he was "hurt" by the awkward incident.
"He's very passive-aggressive. It's up to Ruth to say how she felt, but I was feeling hurt for her," he confessed.
"No one would have snubbed me like that."
The GB News star passionately added: "I have a good Belfast street fighter in me… I would be direct. I don't go for presenters who think they have a special privilege or aura or influence."
Prior to presenting This Morning alongside his wife, Eamonn co-hosted ITV breakfast show GMTV for 12 years.
In September 2020, it was rumoured that the long-standing presenter was "not in line with the youth drive" as ITV was after less "pale, stale and male" stars.
"I'm not going to have myself derided as some sort of has-been. I may be male and pale but I'm still at the top of my game," Eamonn stated in his recent interview.
Speaking to the Mirror, an source revealed that the presenter's quotes are not how many at the channel remember things.
"The key to successful long running shows like This Morning are that they need to constantly evolve and introducing Alison and Dermot to the main presenter mix were part of the change that ITV wanted," the insider explained to us.
They added: "Eamonn and Ruth as a duo were still part of the This Morning family and it was Eammon's choice to leave for a new job."
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