Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield will not lose their jobs at This Morning, despite the substantial public backlash over claims they skipped the queue for the Queen's lying in state.
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Dame Carolyn McCall, who is the chief executive of ITV, has said that the hosting duo's jobs at the broadcaster are safe, but revealed that both presenters were not "feeling great" about the situation. As programme bosses previously confirmed, the daytime presenters were given a separate access line for media to enter Westminster Hall and film a segment for the popular show that aired the day after the Queen's funeral.
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However, despite this, the pair have been targeted on social media over claims they jumped the hours-long public queue. An online petition to have them fired has now amassed more than 75,000 signatures.
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Speaking at an RTS London Convention, Dame Carolyn said that Holly and Phil's actions had "been very misrepresented" by the media as they never entered the venue to pay their respects to the late monarch but to instead "interview people inside and outside".
The presenters came under fire for appearing to jump the lying in state queue
"And that's why we made a statement. Unusually, we made a statement to say all of those things," she said. "But it does show you how things spread and how misinformation just spreads. And it is really horrible for them."
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She added that the pair remain as popular as ever with audiences. "I think they're highly relevant and still very topical, and I think the majority of their viewers love watching them. But there is a very shrill kind of voice against and it will hurt them."
"It's hard. You imagine yourself in the eye of the storm like this, where you're trying to say you've done nothing wrong and all the noise around you is saying that you have. It's difficult to handle."
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