'DON’T MENTION FRED'
Holly Willoughby makes embarrassing paedophile gaffe on This Morning
The presenter mentioned disgraced weatherman Fred Talbot while reading out a tweet on the show
HOLLY Willoughby made a painful gaffe on This Morning after she mentioned disgraced weatherman Fred Talbot.
The host's reference to Talbot, who was jailed last year after being found guilty of indecent assaults on two pupils from Altrincham Grammar School, didn't go unnoticed.
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Fans of the ITV daytime show were quick to pick up on it, after Holly read out a tweet that mentioned Talbot, 65.
Reading from the iPad, Holly said: “Cat says, living in Liverpool I used to go to the docks and I loved seeing the floats that Fred the weatherman used to stand on…”
The tweet was sent in as part of This Morning's celebration of their 28th birthday, which they marked on Monday.
Alongside her co-host Phillip Schofield, Holly asked readers to send in their favourite memories of the long-running programme.
Talbot was best known for presenting the weather on This Morning from a floating map at Liverpool's Albert Dock.
He was jailed for five years in June 2015 for the attacks that happened when he was working as a teacher.
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Some fans had sympathy for Holly's mistake however.
One tweeted: “I think just regretted mentioning Fred the weatherman on This Morning. Oops! .”
It’s not the first time viewers have pointed out mum-of-three Holly making a mistake while on air.
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Holly however has previously spoken about how hard she works, alongside Phil, to make sure mistakes don’t happen.
She said: “You make it less stressful by putting a system in place
“On This Morning we've got a really good team of people – everyone knows their jobs inside out so you can really just rely on something to be done.”
Back in 2012, an on-screen blunder by Phillip Schofield led to ITV having to issue an apology.
The incident saw Phillip handing former Prime Minister David Cameron a list of Conservative politicians who’d been allegedly link to child sex abuse – claiming he’d found the list online after “three minutes” of research.
Ofcom and ITV received 500 complaints after the incident and the broadcaster was forced to apologise.
In a statement, ITV said: “Last Thursday we began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the mistake on that day's This Morning programme, for which both Phillip Schofield and ITV apologised.”
“This investigation has now concluded and the appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.
“We sincerely apologise because the way in which the issue was raised was clearly wrong and should have been handled differently.
“We have taken steps to make sure our editorial processes are always properly followed, which was not the case in this instance, and to ensure such an error will not be made again.”
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