Holly Willoughby has told how she was “really touched” by messages her children wrote to the Queen following her death.
The presenter, 41, encouraged her three children with husband Dan Baldwin – Harry, 13, Belle, 11, and Chester, seven – to put down their feelings in writing after a visit to Buckingham Palace on the weekend to pay their respects.
Appearing on This Morning on Monday, she reflected on the impact of the Queen’s death with her co-host Phillip Schofield.
She said: “She was just consistently here for so many of us. So many of us never knew any different so suddenly for her not to be there…
“I think that is why on Saturday I wanted to take the children down because I think you are trying to explain it to young people. You are almost trying to understand it yourself.
“I found it quite helpful as, as I was talking to them, it was helping it sink in for myself.”
Willoughby said she had urged her children to write to the Queen as a way of processing the news.
Speaking about how she had explained the ideas of service and duty to her youngest, Willoughby added: “I was trying to explain to him that whatever her passions and her loves (were) from being a little girl, this was where she was destined to go, what she was destined to do.
“All of her own passions had to be put on the backburner for her country.
“Chester, he loves football but that would not be something he would get to do and it was giving him that level of understanding.”
Getting out her children’s letters, Willoughby said that reading them back after the visit had “really touched” her.
In his letter, Harry described the late monarch as “the greatest queen England has ever seen” before adding: “You have done so well without Philip, I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you. I am glad you get to see him again.”
Belle, meanwhile, said she hoped the Queen was having “an outstanding time in heaven with Philip and your mother and father”.
Chester wrote only: “To your majesty, thank you for being our Queen. Lots of love. Chester.”
Their messages prompted an emotional response from Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary who had joined them on This Morning.
On Sunday, Willoughby shared photos from her visit to Buckingham Palace with her 8 million Instagram followers, with one showing her daughter placing a letter onto the many flowers arranged outside.
