Holly Willoughby defended Meghan Markle on This Morning on Tuesday, after "unfair" criticism over the outfit she wore at the One Young World summit in Manchester this week.
The host called out show regular Vanessa Feltz's remarks about her wearing a "£4,000 or £5,000 Valentino outfit", which was actually from activist fashion label Another Tomorrow , asking why Meghan's husband Prince Harry's own outfits never came under scrutiny.
Vanessa also suggested Meghan seemed "insincere" at the event, and suggested she was "ego-maniacal" for talking about herself and Harry during her speech at the summit.
She commented to Holly and fellow presenter Phillip Schofield: "Although she's a great actress, she doesn't appear all that sincere.... and yes of course you tell it from your perspective, 'I was here, I was so lucky when I got here, I felt like this, I felt like that' but now enough about me, let's talk about you, or equality, or diversity, world peace, or the environment or any of the very important topics we're shining a light on.
"Let's not shine it on me and talk about myself, and how I feel and my husband, and wait for a round of applause for him. It's incredibly self referential... but she is trying to do a good thing. It was a bit slick, and a bit polished and a bit too ego-maniacal."
As she repeated her comments, she then remarked on her outfit and this lead to Holly calling the criticism out.
Vanessa said: "And her £4,000 or £5,000 Valentino outfit to be just a humble girl from Suits. I mean she's not doing anything wrong but there's something sort of grating about it."
Holly quickly interjected with: "Oh, " revealing her discomfort over the comment, as Phillip also jumped in.
Phillip told Vanessa: "I just get the feeling that no matter what she does she will get criticised."
As Holly said: "I don't like it, I don't like it," Vanessa said of Meghan: "Well talk about yourself less, and other people more. I think that's just a simple mantra, can't go wrong with that one."
Holly suddenly called this out, saying: "I wonder how much Harry's suit was. Do you know what I mean, like I'm sure he's not wearing something off the rack either. It might be but who cares? I'm just saying I think it's unfair to talk about her outfit and not his."
Phil told her: "Good point," as Vanessa suggested he likely "inherited" his outfit from the family and that it probably wasn't new.
As Vanessa comment she "didn't even notice" Harry's outfit, Phil moved the conversation on.
Viewers took to Twitter over the segment, and as some applauded Holly for supporting Meghan others slammed Vanessa for her remarks.
One viewer said: "Well done to Holly Willoughby actually calling out the people on This Morning for bashing Meghan constantly but saying nothing about Harry!! Double standards & they’re all just bullies. Not that they should be bashing either of them! Well done Holly!"
Another tweeted: "Vanessa starting off by saying there’s nothing to criticise here then goes on to criticise. You just can’t help yourselves can you. The daily Meghan bashing. Is this now a permanent feature?"
A third commented: "It seems everyone else has been allowed to talk about Meghan for the last 5 yrs but now she’s free to talk she’s not allowed to mention herself! Vanessa has also deliberately missed the context of the speech."
Meanwhile a fourth wrote: "Just happened to catch your segment Meghan Markle and the usual misinformation about the Duchess of Sussex. Vanessa Feltz's sarcky comment about Meghan wearing Valentino to speak at this function is totally wrong. It's from a company called Another Tomorrow. Do some research FFS!!"
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
