Entertainment

Holly Willoughby returns to This Morning after bout of coronavirus

She was reunited with co-host Phillip Schofield.
She was reunited with co-host Phillip Schofield. She was reunited with co-host Phillip Schofield.

Holly Willoughby has returned to ITV’s This Morning after coming down with Covid, and said waiting to test negative was like “the worst advent calendar in the world”.

It was first revealed the star had a positive test on March 13 when ITV announced she would be absent from the Dancing On Ice semi-final.

She has also been missing from This Morning ever since, with co-star Phillip Schofield presenting instead with Josie Gibson and Alison Hammond.

Making her return to the show, Willoughby said: “It’s so nice to be back. I feel like I’ve been gone forever – I’ve watched loads of you.

“I had 48 hours of feeling really rubbish, you know, just in bed, head on the pillow, headache, all that kind of stuff, and then after that I just felt like I had a bit of a cold but fine… it was just waiting for that line to go every morning.

“It was like the worst advent calendar in the world.”

Willoughby and Schofield also reflected on the two years that have passed since the first lockdown in 2020, with Willoughby saying: “I think if you’d told me [then] that it would’ve been two years, I wouldn’t have believed it.. but it was and finally, it was worth the wait Mr Schofield,” before embracing her co-host.

Schofield hosted the Dancing On Ice semi-final alone after Willoughby’s positive Covid test but the pair will be reunited for the final on Sunday.

When Schofield tested positive for Covid earlier this year, Willoughby presented an episode of the show with Stephen Mulhern.