Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has made no secret of her feelings towards Phillip Schofield in recent years, following a reported fallout
Amanda Holden humorously hit back at a Heart Radio listener this week after he mentioned Phillip Schofield. As part of the show’s celebrity name game, two players compete to name as many stars as possible, using a given pair of letters as the prompt.
During the game, a player named Ollie left Amanda squirming over his mention of her former co-star Phillip, from the letters P and S. After immediately hearing his name, the 55-year-old replied, laughing: “Oh, Ollie my favourite. Of all the names you could’ve come up with, Patrick Swayze, Ollie, at least!”.
Amanda’s reaction comes just days after Phillip was mentioned live on-air again by her co-host Jamie Theakston. Ahead of The Brit Awards last weekend, the Britain’s Got Talent judge and Jamie were joined by host Jack Whitehall.
During their chat, she asked him whether he’d be sporting a “snappy pair of socks” like his father, to which he joked: “I’m not going to go too jazzy with the socks, you never want to be upstaged by a sock.”
Following his answer, she remarked: “Well, Jamie, I rest my case.” Confused by her statement, her fellow presenter replied: “What are you talking about? Children’s television? That wasn’t me, that was Phillip Schofield.”
In response, she chuckled: “Oh god, please, let’s not mention that name on air, it’s a family show!”.
Amanda and Phillip’s apparent feud dates back to 2018 – four years after they presented This Morning together. When the opportunity arose to fill in for Holly Willoughby again, reports claimed he “actively campaigned” for Rochelle Humes to fill in for his co-star, instead of Amanda.
However, an ITV spokesperson subsequently refuted the reports, confirming that presenter decisions rest solely with producers. Phillip also tackled the rumours on social media, describing them as “hurtful and wildly untrue”.
While the Heart Radio host didn’t address the reports directly at the time, she has been open about her feelings towards him over the years. During a light-hearted game on Heart Radio in 2019 about three unwanted items in her home, she joked: “Spiders, flies and Phillip Schofield.”
Subsequently, she claimed that she’d attempted to arrange a face-to-face meeting with him over coffee but said he failed to respond. When questioned about her former colleague on the show, Amanda admitted: “I did offer to meet him for a coffee months ago, he didn’t reply to my text. What can I say?”.
Jamie remarked: “The olive branch had been extended,” to which she confirmed: “Oh, yes.”
While a reunion with Phillip isn’t expected anytime soon, Amanda has returned to screens alongside her Britain’s Got Talent co-stars Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and KSI for a new series.
Britain’s Got Talent continues tonight at 7pm on ITV and ITVX.