Phillip Schofield has ruled out ever presenting ITV’s This Morning without co-star Holly Willoughby.
The duo have hosted the daytime programme together since 2009.
Asked if they could imagine following in the footsteps of Declan Donnelly, who presented Saturday Night Takeaway without Ant McPartlin while his partner was in rehab, he told the Press Association: “It wouldn’t feel right.
“We think the same way, we work the same way, and our sense of humour works at the same speed – we laugh at the same things.
“So no, it just wouldn’t be the same. It’s like doing the show with my best friend and younger sister.”
Willoughby said: “I just don’t think it would work. I mean, Phil and I are very lucky that not only do we work together but we have a friendship that ultimately everything else is pinned on.
“I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else ever, it would feel wrong. We’re very lucky to be together.”
The pair, who were speaking from the This Morning Live show at the NEC in Birmingham, also reflected on how the programme has adapted over the its 30-year history and their own tenure.
Schofield said: “As times have changed, the show has changed, the country’s changed, so we can do things now that perhaps we couldn’t do before.
“When I first joined 200 years ago you couldn’t use the word ‘period’ on the TV, so that’s how much it’s actually changed.
“Now we’ve been at the centre of great campaigns, great health stories, we’re constantly being told that the health items we’ve done have raised awareness and saved people’s lives, but at the same time the element of fun and versatility has still existed, the same as it did when Richard (Madeley) and Judy (Finnigan) started the show all those years ago.”
Willoughby added that the show adapts and changes to meet viewers’ needs, continuing: “The thing that doesn’t change is its core moral fibre – I think that always really stays the same, and the cliche of it being a family-type show – it is that too.”
This Morning Live is at Birmingham’s NEC until May 20.
