Piers Morgan said that he received horrific death threats when discussing Holly Willoughby‘s departure from This Morning after 14 years.
The 42-year-old host, who has been presenting with Alison Hammond and Josie Gibson since Phillip Schofield‘s retirement earlier this year, announced her resignation on Instagram on Tuesday with a message.
‘I have let ITV know today that after 14 years, I will not be returning to This Morning,’ she began.
She went on to say that it was a “tough goodbye,” and that she was making the decision for her own and her family’s sake, following an alleged kidnapping plan.
Holly was removed from her This Morning hosting responsibilities only moments before the show was scheduled to run last Thursday, after a man was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit murder and encouragement to commit kidnapping of the ITV presenter.
Addressing the situation on Tuesday’s Uncensored, Piers said: ‘It’s clearly shaken her so badly, she’s walked away from one of the top jobs in television.’
Piers added that ‘especially with the Jill Dando documentary,’ which explores the murder of the Crimewatch presenter outside her home, ‘I really feel for her’.
He went on: ‘This is because she has got young kids – she’s thinking, “My God, this is not worth it. I’ve got one of the best jobs in telly,” so what? There’s some lunatic out there.’
He continued: ‘Clearly it’s been enough already for Holly to give up this job.
‘I wish you all the very best – she’s a great girl, I’ve known her a long time, a lot of fun with her over the years, what you see is what you get.
‘She’s just a good laugh, a very talented broadcaster.’
The former Good Morning Britain host went on to say he hopes Holly will ‘bounce back’ but can understand if she’s ‘freaked out’.
‘She’s obviously just thought, “I’m done.”‘
‘Nothing happened when I reported them, and it still staggers me,’ Piers said of his own encounters with death threats.
‘To get specific death threats made on my son’s Instagram, and reported it to the police, and they weren’t able to actually file charges. It’s quite breath-taking.’
Piers previously discussed how he and his son, then 28, experienced internet threats and how the police could have done more.
Earlier this year, he said: ‘Almost 600 burglaries a day go unsolved, 77% of all cases are closed without a suspect ever being identified.
‘I had a death threat! Made on my eldest son’s Instagram in public. A specific death threat.
‘And after an 18-month investigation, nothing happened!’
‘It’s not good enough!’, Piers exclaimed.
The threats made against Piers and his family last year were examined after Piers allegedly received texts stating that he was a “marked man” and that he would be “killed.”
Spencer, his son, is also reported to have received texts that he would ‘get it’ if his father did not.
Speaking about the threats at the time, Piers told The Sun: ‘People think it’s perfectly ok to make death threats to public figures on social media but it’s not – there has to be a line drawn, especially when family members are targeted.’
‘That’s why I reported it and I am grateful to the Met Police and Greater Manchester Police for taking it so seriously,’ he added.
‘Cowardly threats have consequences,’ the divisive presenter said.
Piers Morgan Uncensored airs weekdays from 8pm on TalkTV. This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
Source My Celebrity Life.