The curse of This Morning strikes again

Telegraph

6 days ago

Did someone at This Morning shatter a dozen mirrors? ITV's beleaguered daytime show has been beset by a slew of scandals and budget cuts, and its ratings are in freefall. Insiders speak of a 'curse'. This week, it appeared to strike again.
Cat Deeley, one of the show's hosts, announced on Tuesday that she is getting divorced from her husband of 12 years, Patrick Kielty – and the stresses of her job might be partly to blame.
'We have taken the decision to end our marriage and are now separated. There is no other party involved,' Deeley, 48, and Kielty, 54, announced in a joint statement. (The couple have two sons, Milo, nine, and James, seven.)
While they have yet to provide further detail on the reasons for their split, Deeley had previously hinted at the challenges that come with her role. She and Ben Shephard began co-presenting ITV's flagship show in 2024 following the dramatic departure of Phillip Schofield (after having an affair with a younger male colleague) and then Holly Willoughby.
'Like ships in the night'
In May 2024, while interviewing a couple who sleep in separate bedrooms, Deeley admitted on This Morning that she regularly went to bed alone. 'Because of our schedule here, from Monday to Thursday I sleep in the guest bedroom,' she admitted.
A few months later, speaking to The Times, Kielty, who presents Ireland's The Late Late Show on Friday nights, said: 'We've got the start of the week and the weekends together.' Yet in December 2024, Deeley signed a contract to continue presenting the show until at least spring 2026, for a reported salary of £600,000.
This week, after announcing their decision to part, a source close to the couple told the Daily Mail the pair had drifted apart in recent times.
The problem extended beyond separate bedrooms, the source added, pointing out that Deeley and Kielty 'have been living separate lives for the best part of a year'. They described the pair as being 'like ships in the night'.
Indeed, as well as Deeley's gruelling This Morning schedule and Kielty's weekly commute to Dublin for The Late Late Show, which he took over in 2023, Kielty also hosts a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Kielty has also been supporting his family during a difficult time: his aunt died last December, and his mother Mary passed away in March.
Deeley was not with Kielty for his mother's funeral in Dundrum, County Down, where he acted as a pallbearer and gave a reading during the mass. Deeley's spokesman said at the time that she was staying at home 'to be there for her two young children […] on this very sad day'.
Ratings slump
If Deeley has, as reported, made huge sacrifices for her job, she might begin to wonder if it was worth it. Her presenting stint with Shephard has been met with cool indifference at best. Around a million viewers tuned in for their debut in March 2024, but ratings halved in just two months.
She certainly appeared to have concerns at the outset that the job could be a poisoned chalice. An insider told Heat in 2024: 'Cat is worried about taking on this role because of all the controversy that came beforehand.' The source added: ' This Morning has seen some TV titans topple – it feels like it's cursed.'
Perhaps Deeley decided that throwing herself headlong into the role was the only way to save a show which had been branded as 'toxic' by some. But given how many of its previous presenters have been burned by the programme, is This Morning, in fact, an unavoidable career curse?
Rachel Richardson, who writes the culture and trends newsletter highly flammable, believes that the scandal-ridden programme 'went for the really safe option' with the nice but dull pair of Deeley and Shephard, who appear to lack chemistry – and the necessary hint of anarchy.
'The show's USP has always been how ridiculous it is,' observes Richardson. 'It's an entertaining mix of high and low: one minute they're interviewing a government minister, the next it's a woman who claims she's had sex with a ghost. You have to be able to do the full range, whereas Ben and Cat are just a little beige.'
ITV bosses may well have been aiming for middle-of-the-road. This Morning, which began in 1988 with the husband-and-wife team of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, went from being a trusted brand, fronted by bickering but relatable presenting pairs who you welcomed into your living room, to a calamitous soap opera.
An early indication of the show's toxic environment came in 2009 with the abrupt departure of Fern Britton, who reportedly had a falling out with co-host Schofield.
The latter admitted in his memoir, Life's What You Make It, published the same year, that their relationship had turned sour, while Britton told the Daily Mail in 2024 that she 'loved' the show and would 'probably still be there' but for the fact that she and Schofield 'were not getting on very well' prior to her exit.
Schofield found himself under the microscope again in 2023, when Eamonn Holmes (who was part of the presenting team along with his wife Ruth Langsford between 2006 and 2020) revealed that Langsford had once made an official complaint to ITV about Schofield 'because he was so rude'.
Speaking on GB News, Holmes claimed that neither Schofield nor Willoughby made the effort to learn crew members' names.
Dr Ranj Singh also criticised the show (he left This Morning in 2021), claiming in 2023 it had a 'toxic culture' and that he had quit after raising concerns about the treatment of employees, particularly by This Morning 's editor Martin Frizell (who announced he was stepping down from the role in 2024). 'I felt like because I whistle-blew I was managed out,' Singh added.
The Schofield crisis
But the show's biggest crisis came when it lost its most popular presenting duo, Schofield and Willoughby. The public was furious when they seemingly skipped the queue to observe the late Queen lying in state in 2022.
Then came the bombshell revelation that Schofield had had an 'unwise but not illegal' affair with a younger male co-worker, a scandal compounded by what appeared to be his repeated attempts at a cover-up, which allegedly shattered his relationship with Willoughby.
In a statement, she said: 'When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It's been very hurtful to find out that was a lie.'
Schofield, who left This Morning in May 2023, suffered too, telling the BBC's Amol Rajan the following month that he had lost everything and felt 'utterly broken and ashamed' following the revelations and intense, sometimes vitriolic, public scrutiny – the dark side of being in the This Morning spotlight.
He also said that his daughters were guarding him because he had had suicidal thoughts.
Willoughby initially soldiered on following Schofield's departure from the show (beginning with the much-mocked 'Are you OK?' speech to viewers), before enduring another ordeal.
In October 2023 Gavin Plumb was arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap and murder her: Plumb had contacted another man, who was actually an undercover police officer. He was later convicted and jailed for a minimum of 16 years.
The horrific incident was said to have had a 'catastrophic' effect on Willoughby and she announced she was leaving This Morning shortly after Plumb's arrest, saying in a statement: 'I now feel I have to make this decision for me and my family.'
Uncertain future
As for Deeley's own future on the show, a source told The Sun last year that she would probably leave when her deal expired in 2026. 'She has zero desire to follow in Holly's footsteps,' the source said.
That could well be a mutual decision if ratings continue to tumble. Richardson thinks ITV missed a trick by hiring Deeley and Shephard: 'This was an opportunity for the show to reinvent itself,' she says. ' This Morning has an increasingly older audience – if they've got any chance of being relevant to young people, they need to create viral moments that blow up on YouTube and TikTok. They need an extravagant character.'
The obvious choice, says Richardson, is Alison Hammond, who presents the programme on Fridays with Dermot O'Leary. 'They may well have offered her a permanent host job. But she's busy hosting shows like Bake Off – she's got a whole other career.'
Richardson suggests Rylan Clark or Stacey Solomon would also have the requisite warmth and popularity. 'You need someone that people will tune in for when there's so much competing for their attention,' she says. The show is currently trying out Love Island star Olivia Attwood in an attempt to appeal to younger viewers.
But ITV might struggle to lock in talent while also slashing budgets on their daytime shows, as announced in May. More than 220 of the 440 staff at ITV Studios are expected to lose their jobs. While This Morning isn't as badly hit as Lorraine and Loose Women, it will no longer have outside broadcasts or Hammond interviewing Hollywood celebrities – ironically, the sort of content that might go viral.
'Trying to turn this ship around with fewer staff and resources is incredibly challenging,' notes Richardson. Perhaps the end is really nigh for TV's great survivor.