Holly Willoughby returns to This Morning after coronavirus bout

Holly Willoughby has returned to ITV’s This Morning after collapsing with Covid and said waiting for a negative test was like ‘the world’s worst advent calendar’.

It was first revealed that the star had tested positive on March 13, when ITV announced she would miss the Dancing On Ice semi-finals.

Since then, she’s also been missing from This Morning, and co-star Phillip Schofield has joined Josie Gibson and Alison Hammond instead.

Bringing her back to the show, Willoughby said: “It’s so nice to be back. I feel like I’ve been gone forever – I’ve been watching loads of you guys.

“I was feeling really shitty for 48 hours, you know, just in bed, head on the pillow, headache, all those things, and after that I felt like I had a little cold, but well… it was just waiting.” Make sure that line goes every morning.

“It was like the worst advent calendar in the world.”

Willoughby and Schofield also reflected on the two years that have passed since the initial lockdown in 2020, with Willoughby saying: “I think if you would have told me [then] I didn’t think it would have taken two years… but it was, and it was worth the wait, Mr. Schofield,” before hugging her co-host.

Schofield was the sole host of the Dancing On Ice semifinals after Willoughby tested positive for Covid, but the pair will be reunited for the final on Sunday.

When Schofield tested positive for Covid earlier this year, Willoughby presented an episode of the show starring Stephen Mulhern.