Phillip Schofield's friendship with This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby could lead to the presenting veteran stepping down from the ITV programme, claimed media commentator Nigel Pauley on GB News.
This Morning's Phillip released a statement last week where he admitted: "The last few weeks haven't been easy for either of us."
Nigel discussed the alleged feud between the two presenters with GB News host Patrick Christys.
Patrick began the discussion by asking: “He had his big coming out moment, she was there for him, he was literally crying on her shoulder at one point. What’s changed?”
The media commentator replied: "If you’re talking more about the stars' off-screen antics than actually what’s on-screen, that becomes a problem. You’ve got to remember that the difference is, he was protected through coming out, he was protected through other things that have happened in the past and was protected when they queue jumped if you like."
Holly and ITV reportedly were not aware of Phillip's statement until it was released to The Sun.
The GB News host questioned whether ITV bosses will attempt to orchestrate Phillip's departure from This Morning by briefing against him in the coming weeks.
Nigel replied: “They have been briefing against him for some weeks. I think we’ll find that they’ll try and dampen it down to get through the summer. The summer break will be key, I don’t think they’ll be back together in September.”
He also compared Holly and Phillip's feud to Eamonn Holmes and Anthea Turner's infamous falling-out in the 90s when they hosted GMTV together.
Nigel described the previous feud as leaving Eamonn feeling "empowered" and claimed ITV bosses "lost faith" in Anthea.
“They are ruthless, once the skids are under you in television and in ITV, as well as the fans at their cost, they pull the plug," he added. “It seems to be that sadly, one of them is beyond their sell-by-date now and it fears that Schofield is beyond his sell-by-date.”
Meanwhile, Holly and Phillip returned to the This Morning sofa in their usual roles as hosts on Monday but the pair failed to address reports of a rift.
