Vernon Kay was conspicuously quiet during a segment on This Morning when a caller complained to the host about catching her husband secretly texting an ex-partner.
The 47-year-old host was on Monday’s show presenting alongside 37-year-old Josie Gibson and they presided over a segment where viewers could call in for life advice.
Scenes turned awkward, however, when a viewer named Gayle called in to ask for advice after she caught her husband sending saucy messages to one of his exes.
While Josie gamely engaged with the caller, Vernon turned noticeably quit – perhaps with his mind turning back to the 2010 scandal which rocked his relationship with Tess Daly, who he married in 2003, when he was caught sexting topless model Rhian Sugden.
Monday’s show saw the caller phoning in for advice after she found incriminating texts on her husband’s phone.
The only time Vernon chimed in was when he asked: “This is someone he was seeing? An ex-partner?”
He then fell silent as Josie took command of the discussion and engaged with the caller, named Gayle.
Josie asked if anything physical had happened between her husband and his ex, with Gayle replying: “Looking at the texts, they didn’t sleep together or anything.”
Josie then asked: “Maybe, do you think he just wanted someone to talk to?”
And Gayle replied: “Maybe. But some of the texts he sent were very risqué.”
The discussion bore striking similarities to a scandal that engulfed Vernon back in 2010 when he was caught sexting 35-year-old Rhian behind the back of his 53-year-old wife, Tess Daly.
Reports revealed that Vernon had pursued Rhian for four months, sending her messages via Twitter, text and email.
The Page 3 bombshell also claimed that Vernon had attempted to entice her into joining her in a hotel room – but later insisted she had never met with him and that they had only ever shared a “close friendship and flirty messages.”
Rhian also issued a sincere apology to Tess – with whom Vernon shares two children; daughters Phoebe, 17, and Amber, 12.
While Vernon himself was forced to make a grovelling apology to Tess via Radio 1 when his saucy messages were exposed.
The couple survived the scandal – after Vernon had made his apology and promised never to message Rhian, nor four other women he had been caught messaging, ever again.
Considering his past, some This Morning viewers felt that Vernon should not have been on air to help give advice to Gayle – who, it was revealed, was also undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time she discovered her husband of 18 years had been having a text affair with an ex for two-and-a-half years.
Taking to Twitter, one viewer commented: “Not sure Vernon's the right person to be heading-up a segment about people sending flirty text messages.”
And another agreed, writing: “Vernon keeping very quiet during phone call from woman whose man has been texting another woman! AWKWARD!”
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