Over 200,000 This Morning viewers switch off after watching Holly Willoughby’s speech about Phillip Schofield

THIS Morning lost more than 200k viewers following Holly Willoughby’s speech about the Phillip Schofield drama.

Holly, 42, addressed the controversy surrounding her former best mate and co-host as she returned to This Morning on Monday.

But it seems that, while viewers were interested in what she had to say after The Sun revealed she would be making a live statement, they weren’t too impressed.

The flagship ITV daytime show saw a surge of 300k viewers ahead of Holly’s short speech – but more than 200k of them switched off immediately afterwards.

Yesterday presenter Holly — just back from a break in Portugal and wearing a sleeveless white dress — touched her new co-host Josie Gibson’s hand before speaking to viewers.

She said: “It feels very strange sitting here without Phil and I imagine you might be feeling a lot like I have — shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the well-being of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions.”

She added: “You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.

“And it’s equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health.

“I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and well-being of everyone.

“I hope that as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.”

And we later told how Holly has now made a vow never to publicly speak about Phillip again.

A source said: “This is the only time Holly will ever speak about Phil and what has happened.

“She still feels incredibly angry and upset by his actions and is very much still trying to get her head around it.

“It took a lot for Holly to compose herself and speak about what has gone on in the last few weeks.”

Holly and Phil’s once-close friendship crumbled after he confessed to lying about an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male ITV colleague.

Since reports of a fall-out between the pair began, Phil, 61, has been axed by ITV after presenting This Morning for 21 years.

He was also dropped by his agents and lost several lucrative brand deals.