Russell Brand is seen in resurfaced footage calling Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski a ‘shaft grasper’ for the way she holds her water bottle – forcing her to cut to a break.

Brand was 38 at the time and promoting his Messiah Complex stand-up tour, which begun in Abu Dhabi in August 2013.

He appeared to enjoy the awkward interview, in which he pretended to do the hosts’ jobs and mocked them for their dress sense, later tweeting: ‘This is me on a mad American program. Quite funny.’

But after he was accused in a bombshell report on Sunday of rape and sexual assault, Brand’s comments are being seen in a new light.

Brand has now been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women during the peak of his fame, following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

The explosive allegations are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013, while Brand was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4. He has denied the claims.  

The comedian and actor opened with a riff on the media and said that he enjoyed stand-up because it gave him a direct connection to audiences.

‘Don’t think about what I’m wearing – these things are just a distraction,’ said Brand, in response to Brian Shactman joking that he intended to come into work the next day dressed like Brand, with an open shirt and multiple necklaces.

‘I’m distracted,’ interjected host Mika Brzezinski. ‘Be distracted,’ Brand said. ‘What do you think that gesture means – the way you’re touching that bottle? What’s the subtext of that?’

To loud laughter from the studio, Schactman said: ‘We’ve got to go to a break.’

Brand continued: ‘You need to lose that ring, Mika, because it don’t mean nothing to ya’. She’s grasping for the shaft. She’s a shaft-grasper.’

Brzezinski looked somewhat stunned, and picked up her coffee mug to hide her shock.

‘Russell…’ began the other woman on the panel, fellow Briton, Katty Kay. Schactman, laughing, said: ‘That was free, but it was great. We’ll buy tickets.’

The clip resurfaced on the same day that another similarly uncomfortable encounter with Brand, from the same year, re-emerged.

Singer Katherine McPhee was seen in 2013 bouncing up and down on Russell Brand‘s lap during her appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Brand, now 48, appeared on the talk show a decade ago and tried to flirt with the married actress, which to onlookers left her appearing visibly uncomfortable.

But on Monday the singer – who has been married twice – poured cold water on such suggestions. ‘This specific incident was over 10 years ago and it was harmless,’ she said.

During the Jimmy Fallon interview, Brand refused to move out of the interview chair as McPhee stepped up to talk to the host. 

He told Fallon: ‘She’s welcome to sit here’, then grabbed her and suggestively bounced a shocked-looking McPhee on his lap – before she quickly leapt up. 

After Fallon referenced McPhee’s husband, Brand interjected: ‘I didn’t know you were married. I’m going to f**k off now.’ 

It comes as The Times and Sunday Times claim ‘several women’ have come forward with undisclosed allegations about Brand’s behavior during the early 2000s in wake of their joint investigation with Channel 4 which was published on Saturday.

The maverick actor and stand-up comic has strenuously denied any wrongdoing and blamed the ‘mainstream media’ for the ‘litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks’. 

The latest allegations – which the newspaper says have not been investigated by police, but will now be ‘rigorously checked’ – follow accusations from four women, including one who claims she was sexually assaulted by Brand during a three-month relationship with him when she was 16 and still at school. 

The BBC is now also facing ‘urgent questions’ after it was claimed Brand used his company-provided car service to pick the girl up from school.

Both BBC and Channel 4 have launched internal investigations into separate accusations of predatory behavior by Brand towards staff and audience members during the time of his employment. 

Channel 4 has since removed all programs linked to Brand from its website, including episodes of The Great British Bake Off and Big Brother’s Big Mouth in which he was featured, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Netflix has since been urged to remove his comedy special, titled Re:Birth, from its streaming catalogue. 

The BBC’s probe was announced minutes before Scotland Yard piled on the pressure by announcing that detectives would like to speak to the comedian’s alleged victims.

Among the complaints raised in the investigation were allegations by one woman, who alleged Brand raped her against the wall in his Los Angeles home. 

Another woman alleged the comedian sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles and that he threatened her with legal action if she told anyone.

While the third claimed she was sexually assaulted by Brand who she alleges was physically and emotionally abusive towards her.

The fourth woman, referred to as Alice to protect her identity, said she was 16 when he choked her during a sexual act.

She alleges he took her virginity, was ‘preoccupied’ with her being ‘innocent and pure’, and often referred to her as ‘The Child’.

Alice described his behavior towards her as ‘grooming’ as Brand would allegedly provide her with scripts on how to deceive her parents into allowing her to visit him. She also claimed he would send his ‘BBC car’ to her secondary school to pick her up.

‘The first time I used it, he told me it was booked to take him to his radio show but he had a friend taking him instead so I should use that car,’ she told The Times.

She claimed the chauffeur once took her from Brand’s home to her grandmother’s house and that on a separate occasion the same car ‘picked me up from school’.

Alice added: ‘It was the same car…I knew that that was a BBC car.’

The BBC did not initially commit to an inquiry but amid the growing outcry, it shifted its position and a spokesman said it was ‘urgently looking into the issues’.

In a statement, a BBC spokesman said: ‘The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years.

‘Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programs between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised.’ 

Brand has lashed out at ‘aggressive’ media claims as he insisted any relationships he had ‘during his time of promiscuity’ were ‘consensual’ in a 2min 45sec monologue to his 11 million followers on X and 6.5million subscribers on YouTube.

He accused the news organizations of coordinating an attack on him, telling his followers: ‘Is there another agenda at play?

‘Particularly when we’ve seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.’

Holly Willoughby has paid tribute to This Morning’s medical expert Dr Uchenna Okoye who has tragically passed away after a ‘sudden illness’ aged 53.

The ‘kind and passionate’ Cosmetic Dentist made numerous appearances on the ITV show, offering advice to viewers at home. She was also a regular guest on 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, Daybreak, and BBC Breakfast.

A heartbreaking statement posted on Dr Uchenna’s Instagram said she had fallen ill at home on Friday September 15 and died shortly after. No cause of death has been provided by her family.

Willoughby, who worked with Dr Uchenna on This Morning, told her followers: ‘Unbelievably sad to hear of the passing of @druchennaokoye. We first worked together many moons ago with @oralb_uk and she was very kind to me… and then of course again, giving her advice on @thismorning. Sending all my love to her family.’

BBC radio presenter Jo Whiley wrote online: ‘Devastating news. Sending love to her daughter, family and London Smiling team. Strong, beautiful, funny Uchenna. Awful. Just awful.’

TV presenter Donna Air posted: ‘What?! No, I’m so confused. How, why… her daughter!! Shocked and saddened.’

Dr Uchenna, who qualified at the prestigious Guy’s Hospital in London, ran two dental practices and owned a line of specialist dental products. 

She was one of a small group of dentists to belong to both the British and American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. 

Outside of directing the London Smiling Dental Group, she regularly appeared on television and radio to provide expert advice. She also was the official dentist of Channel 5‘s makeover programme 10 Years Younger. 

Presenter Cherry Healey of the Channel 5 programme also paid tribute to Dr Uchenna. 

‘There aren’t really the right words to say how much this absolute force of a human being will be missed and how sad this news is.

‘I was so fortunate to work with Dr Uchenna on @10yearsyounger for many happy years, and to then got to know her as a beautiful friend.

‘She spoke with such passion and love for the people she helped smile again – and she was the warmest, smartest, most fun woman you could wish to meet,’ she wrote on Instagram this evening.

Dr Uchenna’s husband Chidi Ngwaba is a doctor who specialises in lifestyle medicine, helping patients who suffer from diabetes, autoimmune diseases and obesity. 

He has also appeared on televisions, including ITV’s Good Morning Britain and the BBC’s Food: Truth or Scare.

The couple share a young daughter.  

Announcing Dr Uchenna’s tragic passing, her family wrote earlier this evening: ‘It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of the much loved and respected Cosmetic Dentist, Dr Uchenna Okoye, who passed away after falling ill at home on Friday 15th September 2023.

‘At this time, we ask for your prayers for her young daughter, her family, her team of staff at London Smiling Dental Group and her friends who are all struggling to come to terms with her loss.

‘We request that you respect Uchenna’s family’s wishes for privacy at this very difficult time.

‘The Uchenna sparkle touched the lives of everyone she met and drew her into stardom on 10 Years Younger makeover show, followed by 10 Years Younger in 10 Days where her passion and compassion leaps off the screen.

‘For the last twenty years, her deep knowledge of dentistry and her incredible chair-side manner made her the go-to spokeswoman for any dental issue and a popular contributor to radio, TV, and women’s consumer press,’ it continued.

Tributes from viewers have poured in for the TV regular with one fan writing: ‘That’s absolutely devastating… sending much love to her family.’

Another wrote: ‘Am absolutely heartbroken to read this. I adored Uchenna. I can’t really process this awful news.’ 

A third commented: ‘Beautiful Uchenna! An industry beacon who quickly became a friend to many of us. So warm, generous and funny. 

‘Sending condolences to her family and friends.’

Another follower wrote: ‘Devastating news. My love and prayers to her family. 

‘We will all miss your infectious energy and warmth.’

While someone else shared: ‘Absolutely shocked about this devastating news! I still can’t believe it. 

‘She was the kindest, loveliest person who I knew briefly. Rest in peace and my condolences to your family and your little girl.’

The news comes just days after Holly Willoughby and This Morning led the tributes to guest Matty Lock after he suddenly died aged 19. 

Holly and co-presenter Dermot O’Leary paid tribute to a ‘truly unique’ and ‘lovely’ member of the studio. 

The ‘delightful’ teenager regularly appeared on the show to review vacuum cleaners, which he had become obsessed with since the age of two when he received his first toy Henry hoover.

The popular youngster was also a member of the Labour Party and recently spoke of his pride at becoming councillor in his hometown of Maghull, Merseyside. 

Sharing the news at the start of Monday’s programme, Dermot said: ‘One of the This Morning family members Matty Lock – you might remember Matty – sadly passed away this weekend.’

Willoughby added: ‘He was a much-loved member of our team who never failed to bring joy and more to our studio with an infectious passion for gadgets and technology. He was truly unique.’

O’Leary continued: ‘Yeah, bless him. His love for vacuum cleaners started when he was just two years old when he received his first toy Henry. 

‘He then went on to become a politician, a campaigner and a much loved member of this show. He’s a lovely guy.’

‘Matthew will be missed by all of us here and we extend our deepest condolences to his family. It was incredibly sad, shocking news to get yesterday’, finished Willoughby.

Matty regularly appeared on This Morning from a young age, including at the age of 15 where he had a segment revealing the best hoovers to buy that summer. 

Private £4,569-a-term day school, Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School, in Crosby, Liverpool, shared his appearance on the show on its website at the time. 

Matty last posted on his Facebook page in April where he spoke of how he had ‘hit the ground running in delivering for Maghull and residents’ concerns and priorities’ since he had been elected.

At the age of 13 Matty had amassed 150 vacuums as part of his collection.   

He became interested in vacuums aged two when he got his first toy Henry. By the age of five he was hoovering the family home.

Speaking at the time, he said he was cleaning up by fixing old machines and selling them while carrying out repairs on every cleaner on the market.

He said: ‘I remember in year four or five having a rough idea how to take them apart and looking into how to make them run, that’s when the collecting started. 

‘I started finding machines, getting parts and being able to put them together to make a new vacuum.

‘I became more and more interested in getting rarer machines.

‘I like the way they work and seeing how they can be improved. I like seeing how they’ve advanced over the years – different machines do different jobs.

‘I get them off eBay or on Facebook selling sites. I find them in skips and people have even started leaving them outside my back door.

‘Some of the Henrys I have are 40 years old. I like to fix them but if they’re beyond repair I will make a good one out of two hoovers.

‘My collection is mostly Henrys and Dysons. I’ve got original versions which are made out of metal and Bakelite. My collection is well into the hundreds now.

‘They are all in my workshop in my garden which is where I do all my vacuum repairs.’

He spent around ten hours a week fixing broken vacuums, and estimated he had fixed around 500 and sold 300 machines.

From the money he made out of selling on the fixed machines, he reinvested the cash into more broken vacuums.

He added: ‘I just find it so satisfying getting them from places like builder’s yards where they’re full of plaster – being able to clean them up, make them look nice and get them up to a really good standard.’

Jennifer Garner braves the rain as she gets in an early morning jog near her Brentwood home

By Sam Joseph Semon For Dailymail.com

Updated: 03:05 EDT, 3 September 2023

Rustie Lee left This Morning viewers in stitches on Friday’s episode of This Morning as she suffered a mishap during the cooking segment.

The TV chef, 74, joined hosts Rochelle Humes and Andi Peters to whip up some spam pancakes but things didn’t go to plan.

Rustie appeared to get distracted as she was chatting to Rochelle and Andi and accidentally burned the pancakes she had in the frying pan.

She then went back to trying to whip up another batch but realised she was doing it wrong as she was giving viewers instructions.

The comedian said: ‘You make it like a parcel, very good. Then you egg wash them.

‘This is how it used to be. Then you flour them like that. Have I done this right? No, I’ve done it wrong!’ 

While the cooking segment went wrong, viewers found the mishap hilarious.

One took to X/Twitter and wrote: ‘I’m obsessed with Rustie, she makes me howl,’ while another said: ‘Rusty is mad’.

A third viewer penned: ‘Don’t give yourself a heart attack Rustie,’ while a fourth wrote: ‘Rustie is SO over the top’. 

A fifth wrote: ‘If I behaved like this at work I’d be in trouble!’ while another said: ‘That looks like something a dog left in a park.’ 

Earlier this year, Rustie was declared bankrupt after lawyers spent nearly a ten years chasing her over £75,000 in debt.

The TV-am star withdrew money from a company she ran with her husband shortly before it went bust in 2013.

A statutory demand for £75,750 was made to Lee and proceedings brought against her, according to The Sun.

They concluded last month at Brighton Crown court and the Birmingham-raised chef was made bankrupt.

Her husband Andreas Hohmann reportedly faces proceedings for a similar amount.

A source said told The Sun: ‘Her assets can be sold to raise the money, but we are led to believe she doesn’t have any.’

A regular guest on daytime TV shows like ITV’s This Morning and Loose Women, Rustie first became a household name in the 1980s.

As a young girl, she came from Jamaica to live with her parents in Birmingham, and worked at her family’s Caribbean bakery growing up.

She went on to hone her craft at a culinary college before setting up her restaurant, Rustie’s, in Handworth.

The silver service Caribbean restaurant, which hosted the likes of Muhammed Ali, helped the chef to catch the attention of BBC producers.

She first hit British screens on Pebble Mill at One before moving to TV-am, where she made her name on cookery.

Her infectious laugh also helped her get booked onto hosting primetime Saturday night show Game for a Laugh.

She has since taken part in a number of celeb reality shows, including the popular fly-on-the wall documentary the Real Marigold Hotel with seven other celebs in 2017.

She has also made multiple appearances on our screens gracing shows like Good Morning Britain and Loose Women, but her money woes have not been revealed until now.

Ruth Wilson teases a return to Luther during an appearance on Good Morning Britain despite her character Alice ‘falling to her death’

By Lily Jobson For Mailonline

Published: 05:23 EDT, 22 August 2023 | Updated: 06:40 EDT, 22 August 2023

Once upon a time, before the arrival of electric light, people would eat their evening meal by candlelight.

When my wife, Clare, and I are feeling romantic (or when there is a power failure), we still sometimes do this, although turning on an electric light is obviously far more convenient.

But perhaps the idea of going back to more candlelit dinners will catch on, thanks to recent research which suggests that reducing your exposure to bright lights in the evening can lead to better sleep, improve your blood sugar levels and even help you to lose a bit of weight.

On top of that there is evidence that exposure to bright light in the late afternoon and evening can trigger anxiety and mood swings in some people (but more on that later).

I’ve written before about the benefits of exposing yourself to bright light first thing in the morning, ideally by going for a brisk 30-minute walk or just spending a bit of time in your garden.

That’s because doing this helps reset your internal body clock, which regulates your circadian rhythms, and which, in turn, determines the timing of natural body processes and functions — including your energy levels and your sleep.

But what you do at the other end of the day also matters.

There is, for example, mounting evidence that being exposed to bright light in the evening not only disrupts your sleep but can lead to weight gain.

In a study, published in the journal PLOS One in 2016, researchers at Northwestern University in the U.S. took 19 healthy adults and asked them to eat their evening meal under either dim or bright light.

When the volunteers ate under bright light, this led to an increase in insulin resistance (which means their bodies had greater difficulty getting their blood sugar levels down after they’d eaten the meal).

The researchers said that increased insulin resistance and a build-up of blood sugar could, over time, lead to increased body fat, weight gain and a higher risk for type 2 diabetes. And pregnant women may be particularly sensitive to the impact of light; one of the unfortunate potential complications of getting pregnant is that some women develop gestational diabetes, where their blood sugar levels soar into the diabetic range.

In the UK around one in 20 pregnant women is affected, and although the condition often resolves once the baby has been born, if you develop gestational diabetes you’re ten times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes (as well as having a higher risk of cardiovascular problems and stroke) later in life.

Gestational diabetes also potentially affects the baby, increasing their risk of becoming overweight or having high blood pressure when they grow up. In a recent study of pregnant women, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal and Fetal Medicine, 741 pregnant women were fitted with a wrist device to measure their exposure to light — the researchers found the mothers-to-be who got the most exposure to bright light in the three hours before bedtime were at greatest risk of developing gestational diabetes.

This wasn’t a proper randomised controlled trial — involving a placebo group — but it certainly adds to research suggesting that late-night light exposure really can mess with our metabolism.

Dr Minjee Kim, an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University, who carried out this study, said all this research into light has affected how she lives her own life.

‘I’m now the light police at home,’ she says. ‘I switch off unnecessary lights and try to dim the light as much as possible. For evening activities such as dinner and bathing the kids, you don’t need bright light.’

She also recommends avoiding using your computer or phone during the lead-up to bedtime — ‘but if you have to use them, keep the screens as dim as possible’.

And as I mentioned earlier, light doesn’t just affect our blood sugar levels, it can also affect our mood.

Too little light in winter can lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as the winter blues. As I know from personal experience, you feel depressed, moody and have a craving for carbs. Separately, too much light in the evening can affect people with Alzheimer’s.

If you have a loved one with this disease, you may have noticed that distressing symptoms such as confusion and anxiety become worse late afternoon and evening.

This is called ‘sundowning’ and a new study suggests it may be driven by changes in light levels.

Previously it was thought this behaviour was due to changes in the brain, but research in the journal Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience suggests it is changes in the retina, the light-sensitive area at the back of the eye, caused by Alzheimer’s, that are responsible. This understanding could poten-tially lead to new approaches to coping with sundowning.

In the meantime, Dementia UK recommends closing the curtains and turning on the lights before dusk ‘to ease the transition into night-time’.

Our remote ancestors rose with the dawn and huddled round the campfire at night.

So it’s not surprising that light, how much you are exposed to and when, has such a profound effect on our mind and bodies.

West Virginia man captures moment a giant fireball explodes in the early morning sky – and NASA says it came from a comet

By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com

Updated: 14:18 EDT, 3 August 2023

Two British victims on the Egyptian dive boat that caught fire in the Red Sea had decided to sleep in on the morning fire broke out, while the other Brit who died returned to his cabin to grab personal belongings, according to a report.

Sources told Al Arabiya.net that the three missing persons, a woman and two men, were inside their rooms on the boat at the moment that the fire broke out on Sunday morning, noting that one of them left the room in an attempt to escape, but then returned.

They also added that he may have wanted to take his phone, passport or some of his personal belongings from the room but he was then unable to leave.

The sources told the media outlet that the other two, the man and the woman, hated waking up early and were asleep when the fire started because they did not take part in the diving trip. 

They also noted that their rooms were located near the fuel tank and that they may have died from suffocation or from their burns. 

Scuba Travel, the company that chartered the boat, announced that the three Brits who ‘perished in the tragic incident’ off the coast of Marsa Alam had chosen not to go diving that day, leaving them unable to evacuate the boat quickly.

Investigators combing through the wreckage confirmed today that the three victims were found below deck in their cabins after failing to escape the intense fire. 

Scuba Travel said that the three passengers were among 15 qualified diving enthusiasts who were on board the ‘Hurricane’ boat for a week-long trip when the fire broke out at around 6.30am UK time.

‘At the time the fire broke out, 12 divers were participating in a briefing on board, while those missing had apparently decided not to dive that morning,’ the company added. 

Scuba Travel said that due to the severity of the blaze, 12 divers were evacuated immediately to a nearby craft, while the 14 crew members had to abandon the ship after trying to reach the missing guests. 

Footage on social media showed the tour boat transform into a floating inferno as its stern was engulfed by flames, producing plumes of black smoke while it was off the Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea.

A video showed terrified passengers jumping from the ship, which had 29 people on board at the time, to escape after a suspected electrical fault in the engine room.

A spokesman for Scuba Travel confirmed to MailOnline yesterday: ‘It is with great regret that we, as tour operator, with heavy hearts, must accept that three of our much-valued dive guests, perished in the tragic incident.

‘Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to their families and friends at this very sad time.’

In total, 26 passengers were rescued, 12 British and the other 14 are thought to be Egyptian. Local police said the people rescued had no injuries and were in good health. 

They also said the crew rescued suffered no injuries and were taken to shore in good health.

The shocked group of survivors were today being offered trauma counselling following their ordeal, which was compounded by the devastating loss of the three people with whom they bonded closely during their week together. 

The Britons have been moved to a hotel in Hurghada, 180 miles north of the tragedy, while emergency travel documents to allow them to return to the UK are arranged.

A spokesperson for Scuba Travel, Pat Adamson, said: ‘They lost everything on the boat. People will be searching under the sea, but if nothing reappears, then that’s it.

‘All of their credit cards, money, personal belongings, toothbrush, car keys, credit cards, everything gone – and their passports.

‘Their cars are at Gatwick, they don’t have their house keys.’

The group had been together for a week-long trip.

Mr Adamson added: ‘There’s a trauma counsellor with them now. Even though they’d only been together for a few days, it’s a small group and you get to know each other incredibly well.’

A full investigation is set to be carried out by local authorities to determine what caused the fire. The wrecked boat has been pictured lying on its side with smoke still billowing out of it on the shore as it cools down.

The cruiser left Port Ghalib in the eastern city of Marsa Alam on June 6 and was meant to return on Sunday.

It was said to be one of the Tornado Marine Fleet tours, which offers ‘Luxury Red Sea Liveaboards’ for just under £1,500 per trip.

A Foreign Office spokesman said on Sunday: ‘We are in contact with local authorities following an incident aboard a dive boat near Marsa Alam, and are supporting British nationals involved.’ 

MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for an updated comment. 

The Red Sea Governorate said: ‘The initial examination resulted in an electrical short circuit in the engine room, and the investigation authorities went to conduct an inspection and investigation.’

It added: ‘[The Secretary General] pointed out that the crew and passengers were rescued by the boat named “Blue” and returned to central Marsa Alam, and a search is still underway for three British passengers by the concerned authorities and other boats, stressing that the Ambulance Authority and the Directorate of Health Affairs have been notified to raise the level of readiness and follow-up is underway.’ 

A diving enthusiast who was on the same ship in May, said the boat was plagued with problems and no one was surprised the blaze had occurred.

He told MailOnline: ‘[We had] recurring issues from the week of May 1 and 8. There was no nitrox on board. They should have had it but they never told us. 

‘The toilets and the showers weren’t working properly.’

He added: ‘There was some issue below the decks. They were pumping something out but it was coming up my toilet. 

‘The crew work very hard – they don’t get paid a lot – but the boat has seen better days. 

‘I was in cabin six in the bow so I wouldn’t have wanted to get out from there. 

‘None of us are surprised that [the blaze] happened.’

Egypt’s Red Sea resorts harbour some of the country’s most renowned beach destinations and are popular with European holidaymakers.

The country has cemented its reputation as a dive destination with easy access to coral reefs from shores and dive sites offering diverse marine life.

By Mark Duell and Olivia Jones

Published: 03:29 EDT, 5 June 2023 | Updated: 20:27 EDT, 5 June 2023

This Morning viewers noticed a very awkward moment when Holly Willoughby had to cut to a live link with nemesis Ruth Langsford live on This Morning on Monday.

In the brief moment, in which Holly introduced the Loose Women show, the pair were very civil and professional to one another. 

Holly, 42, sitting alongside Ruth Langsford and US singer Adam Lambert, said: ‘Let’s find out what Loose Women are talking about today. “Hi there, Ruth!”

Ruth, 63, replied: ‘Yeah, we love Adam Lambert, too!’ [he was a guest in the This Morning studios], before blowing him kisses. 

The exchange comes after Ruth’s husband issued brutal criticisms of both Phillip Schofield but also Holly in the wake of the scandal engulfing This Morning following claims of toxicity and his affair with a much younger colleague. 

Eamonn, 63, had Holly and Phil ‘actors’ and criticised Holly over her claim she was ‘sad’ Schofield was departing the show. 

He said last week on GB News: ‘Well, she wanted him not there, so what is she moaning about? Holly is being as false as he is and nobody is talking about the elephant in the room.’

Mimicking her, he continued: ‘Oh, the couch will not be the same without him being there.’

Holmes then said: ‘They deserve each other. She says “I thank him for all his knowledge, experience and humour.” All the things that she didn’t have when she came to the show. 

‘Well, it’s true. I would call that stabbing in the back. I could give you a list of the lack of kindness and lack of awareness from both of them.’

Eamonn’s words had come after Holly had first issued a statement about Phillip’s departure. 

She spoke again about the fall-out with Phillip on Monday morning with an emotional monologue about her former best friend. 

She said it ‘feels very strange indeed’ to be on the show without Phillip , adding that the team ‘gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth’.

Eamonn launched a fresh attack on Phillip again on Monday, insisting he doesn’t believe the former ITV star’s claim that he has made ‘one mistake’ in his 40-year career.

In a bombshell interview last week Phillip said he believed his career was over and he had ‘lost everything’ after admitting he lied about his relationship with a man who worked on This Morning.

Speaking on his GB News programme today, Phillip’s former colleague Eamonn called for ‘anyone watching today who has kissed Phillip Schofield, let us know’.

He added: ‘He said in his 40-odd years of broadcasting that he’s made one mistake, he had one kiss that he shouldn’t have had.

‘I put it to anyone watching today that if you have kissed Phillip Schofield let us know. Let us see if that figure of one grows to the figure that I believe it is probably at.’

Elsewhere on the show, Eamonn said: ‘We’re not supposed to criticise him in case he harms himself but he still thinks he can go on and say lies, lies, lies.

‘He’s admitted he is a liar. You should see the emails, the texts and the messages I’ve been sent over the past week. I think he’s getting off very very lucky.

‘Like everybody else he lied to me, I was happy to stand by him until I found out that he was lying… This isn’t about him being gay, not in the slightest.’

Eamonn also criticised Jeremy Clarkson for defending Phillip over the weekend, saying: ‘Clarkson didn’t work there, what does he know?’

In last week’s interviews, Phillip, who was dropped by ITV and his talent agency YMU after his admission to the Mail about the ‘unwise but not illegal relationship’, said he was ‘utterly broken and ashamed’.

Schofield told the BBC that the young man, who worked as a runner for a short period on This Morning, was 20 when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him.

He told The Sun they were friends and then in 2017 – three years before he came out as gay – ‘something happened that just changed it’.

The former presenter said there was ‘a consensual moment’ in his dressing room after a show and ‘it was mutual’.

He added that he did not have a ‘love affair’ with the man and ‘it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends, we were mates’.

He added: ‘I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.’ The pair had ‘five or six romantic encounters’ over a period of around six months.

 

Holly was back on the sofa on Monday for the first time since his departure on May 26 as she appeared emotional alongside co-presenter Josie, 38.

Holly said: ‘Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you OK? I hope so.’

She stated it ‘feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil and I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have. Shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions’.

‘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 they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process’.

She added: ‘It’s equally hard to see the toll it’s taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone. 

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

‘And from the heart, can I just say thank you for all your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison, Craig and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every day.’

She was hugged by Josie who added they were working on keeping the show a ‘family’, with tearful Holly then concluding: ‘Exactly’, before the show got down to business as usual. 

Minutes earlier, Holly had appeared in a videolink on Lorraine before the show to talk about what was coming up, as controversy in the wake of Phillip’s exit continued. 

Friends of Phillip had already said he would not tune in to watch Holly’s return to the sofa as it would be too ‘triggering’ for him, especially the opening credits.

It comes after Phillip said he ‘didn’t tell anybody’ about his affair with his former This Morning colleague, confirming in a tell-all interview with BBC’s Amol Rajan that Willoughby ‘did not know’.

Similarly, in his interview with the Sun, the 61-year-old presenter apologised to Holly for lying to her about his relationship, saying: ‘I’ve lost my best friend.’

He added: ‘I let her (Holly) down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.

‘Holly did not know (about the affair) and she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say: ‘I am so, so sorry that I lied to you’.

‘She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply as well. So, yeah, if anyone is in any way linking Holly to this, that is – absolutely, wholly untrue.’

The duo, who had presented the show together since 2009 and also co-hosted Dancing On Ice before Schofield resigned from ITV, had been open about their close friendship over the years.

Holly’s return comes as the ITV show has been plagued by allegations of ‘toxicity’, including from former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes who has alleged there was a ‘total cover-up’ over the Schofield affair.

The show’s former resident doctor, Dr Ranj Singh, also hit out at a ‘toxic’ culture, saying he raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ two years ago when he worked there and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing.

In a letter from ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall to Parliament on Wednesday, she said an external review conducted following a complaint made by Dr Ranj found ‘no evidence of bullying or discrimination’.

Meanwhile, former This Morning head of news Emily Maddick, who worked on the show from September to December 2019, claimed she quit the programme due to ‘bullying, sexism and a toxic culture of fear and intimidation’.

On Saturday, This Morning editor Martin Frizell told a Sky News reporter to ‘read between the lines’ amid claims of toxicity, adding: ‘I think there’s some scores being settled.’

Dame Carolyn has been called to a parliamentary committee on June 14 to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling following Schofield’s exit.

Last Wednesday, she confirmed the broadcaster had instructed barrister Jane Mulcahy KC of Blackstone Chambers to carry out an external review of the facts.

There will be no return to the show for Phillip, who told last week he fears he will be spat on in the street if he leaves his house amid the fallout from his affair, which happened while he was still married.

He told The Sun: ‘I do not know a time I will be able to walk out of the door. I don’t have any spirit. My friends tell me, “It will get better”. It won’t. Not now. Not this one.

‘You watch all these layers of you slide away and slide away and slide away. The things that were dear to you. But I deserve it. It’s my fault. I deserve it.’

Phillip said he had never previously suffered abuse on the street, but asked about the prospect of being hit with it if he goes outside: ‘Are they spitting on me because I had an affair at work and lied about it?’

He added he was being supported by his daughters Molly, 30, and Ruby, 27, who he had with his wife of 30 years Stephanie Lowe years before he publicly came out as gay on This Morning in February 2020.

Phillip has also insisted he had not groomed his lover, who he first got in contact with when he was aged 15.

The former host was pictured with his mother on Friday, May 19, after he received the bad news from ITV.

He and his mother had driven from her home to their favourite fish and chip shop before heading out to Pentire Headland where they looked out over the sea, The Sun reports.

The presenter, who hosted This Morning since 2002, had been in the seaside town to support his mother as his brother, Timothy, was being sentenced for sex offences against a teenage boy.

The same day her youngest son was jailed for 12 years, Pat was told by her eldest child that he was losing his job.

While getting fish and chips with his mother, Schofield received a phone call from his manager telling him bosses at the channel wanted him to leave the show.

In an interview with The Sun last week, Phillip said: ‘I had to go down to Cornwall to be with [my mother] for the sentencing.

‘And our family thing was always to buy fish and chips and go and sit on the headland.

‘I picked my mum up and she went in to get the fish and chips — and while she was getting them, my phone rang.

‘It was my then manager saying, “Mate, I am so sorry, it has become too loud for ITV. You will have to step down from This Morning”.

‘And she arrived in the car. She said to me before I arrived, “You’re not coming down with any bad news, are you?”.

‘She sat in the car and she was all happy to see me, and then she said, “Oh, your face has changed”.

‘I said, “Let’s go on to the headland”. And I had to tell her.’

The furore which has surrounded Phillip has threatened to engulf This Morning, with ITV getting set to introduce ‘heavy vetting’ of public callers to protect presenters from outbursts over the scandal.

Production staff will take on the important role of screening callers, as audience interaction segments are also to be paused to avoid any abuse being sent towards presenters

And on the eve of her on-screen return Holly posted a cryptic message urging others to ‘maintain a positive perspective’.

Uploading a snap of the ‘Strawberry Moon’ on her wellness page Wylde Moon page, the full post read: ‘This Full ‘Strawberry’ Moon in Sagittarius brings with it a zest for life.

‘The guiding influence of this fire sign combined with Jupiter encourages you to maintain a positive perspective and to tune into your finest qualities.

‘Inspire. Renew. Believe.’