This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield’s friends rally around the star, revealing his true feelings towards Eamonn Holmes and Amanda Holden – and what sparked their feud

TV presenter Phillip Schofield ’s friends have lifted the lid on the star’s bitter feud with Eamonn Holmes for the first time.

The presenter believes Eamonn’s “personal vendetta” against him stems from being axed from the Friday slot on This Morning, according to his pal. They claim Eamonn’s animosity is because he is “consumed with jealousy that Friday rated poorly compared to the rest of the week.” Schofield’s friend claims this was the main reason why he was let go by the ITV show, in 2021. “It was simply down to ratings,” the pal added.

They added that Eamonn was also upset that Schofield never messaged him after he was let go by ITV. “The truth is that Phillip wishes he did message him but bigger things were happening in his life and stroking his ego wasn’t one of them,” the friend says.

The friend says that Schofield never had a problem with Eamonn until he wrote a “scathing” article about him.

“When Phillip asked, confused, why he had done it, Eamonn said he was two faced. And that was it … his personal vendetta of hatred began,” the friend says. “This included ‘knowing’ that he’d used his personal ITV car account ‘to ferry his lover’ which was utterly untrue….and backed up by the fact that presenters don’t have personal car accounts at ITV.”

This Morning: In happier times ( 
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Dave Benett/Getty Images)Eamonn said recently how he was “very proud” to have “thrown him under the bus”, before going on to accuse Schofield of being “absolutely addicted to fame”. He has blasted him and co-star Holly Willougby dozens of times in the past, including over queue-gate in 2022, when he called them both “arrogant liars. ”

And when Schofield announced his departure from This Morning, Eamonn was quick to respond, saying: “Schofield has finally been caught out”. Schofield’s pal claimed that while Eamonn’s wife Ruth was liked by all the staff, they were indifferent to him. “He definitely wasn’t as popular,” the pal claims.

The pal also lifted the lid on the famous fall-out between wife Ruth and Schofield, in 2019. Ruth was doing a promo at the end of This Morning for Loose Women when she over-ran – prompting Schofield to cut her off.

Eamonn’s estranged wife reportedly complained to ITV about Schofield at the time for his behaviour. But Phil’s friend said he wasn’t to blame.

A source said: “The gallery was going completely potty shouting in Phil’s ear that he had to cut Ruth off as she had over-run, and it all got quite heated. Phil was just following orders.”

The friend also opened up about the well-reported feud between Amanda Holden and Schofield stemming from her not getting the This Morning job when Holly was in the jungle. Amanda had been tipped to stand in for Holly on This Morning during her time away hosting I’m a Celebrity in 2018 but The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes got the job instead.

Schofield’s friend said that he was left upset about being put on Amanda’s “most hated’ list”, and accused of blocking the appointment “People always go up for jobs they don’t get but she took a bitter and public revenge,” the pal says.

Opening up: Schofield on Castaway ( 
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“It was all part of a hideous communication mix up and not what has been painted out to be. Amanda had lunch with one ITV boss who said afterwards he was sure she could have the gig. But Rochelle had already been approached and cleared her diary.”

Amanda has previously spoken about the incident, insisting they would never reconcile. She told her Heart breakfast host Jamie Theakston: “I did offer to meet him for a coffee months ago, he didn’t reply to my text. What can I say?”

She has since appeared to make several digs at Schofield, including posting a strongman arm emoji to her social media page after news of his This Morning exit broke.

A source close to Amanda said: “This was such a long time ago and Amanda has completely moved on with her life and is loving life on the country’s biggest breakfast show. It’s sad that Phillip is still thinking about this but, to set the record straight, Amanda maintains that it was very much down to Phillip that she didn’t get the job and was told that at the time.

The source added: “Phillip is talking about everyone else rather than himself, always pointing the finger and blaming other people for his downfall.”

A source close to Eamonn last night insisted that him and Ruth always rated very highly “to the point where all the newcomers after them were nowhere near.” The source added that ratings “was not the reason for their exit from the show.” But an ITV source told the Mirror that the Monday to Thursday ratings were higher and that “Alison and Dermot are more popular.”