Judy Finnigan lifts lid on reason she refuses to come back on This Morning
Former This Morning host Judy Finnigan has revealed the reason she won’t return to the ITV show, despite becoming one of its most iconic presenters alongside husband Richard Madeley.
The famous dup presented the chat show from its inception in 1998 to 2001, before hosting their own show entitled Richard and Judy for a further eight years.
Speaking in Saga Magazine’s December issue, Judy didn’t hold back as she criticised certain changes to the show’s format.
Addressing whether the would ever come back to appear on the show, she confirmed: “For 13 years Richard and I hosted This Morning but I will no longer watch it, and won’t appear on there to talk about my book.
On November 9, Judy released her latest book, Roseland, which the Sunday Express has described as “a moving meditation of grief, family bonds, motherhood and female friendship”.
READ MORE: This Morning bosses eyeing up husband and wife as the ‘next Holly and Phil’
“This isn’t a protest,” Judy continued. “It’s just a very different show than it was when we were doing it.
“We’d interview people about books and you felt like there was some real interest there. I’m not sure there would be now.”
Speaking about recent changes to This Morning, Judy reflected: “I know the politics inside television are extremely dense but it seems to me to be an extraordinary disaster of a stage in This Morning’s life that I don’t think needed to happen.
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“Phillip [Schofield] is not a close friend but he is a friend and I must admit I simply cannot understand why he had to go.”
On May 20, Phillip exited This Morning following the revelation that he had engaged in an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a much younger colleague.
His former co-host Holly Willoughby, who had reportedly been feuding with Phillip before his departure, also quit the show on October 11 after 14 years.
Judy went on to say: “A lot of discussion has been had about why the show couldn’t work because Phillip and Holly [Willoughby] weren’t good friends any more.
“I couldn’t understand what I always thought was this unhealthy obsession with Holly and Phillip being friends – therefore for the programme to work they had to be so close.
“Programmes and presenters don’t work like that…We were married and so supposed to be good friends. I just find the whole thing a great shame and incredibly upsetting.”
The full article from the December issue of Saga Magazine can be found on www.exceptional.com.
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