Irish presenters Laura Whitmore and Craig Doyle are among the many figures from the world of entertainment and media to wish Holly Willoughby well following her announcement that she is to depart This Morning after 14 years.
Commenting on Willoughby's announcement post on Instagram, Whitmore wrote: "You do what's best for you. Look after yourself lovely Holly. You light up any screen you're on xxx."
Doyle, who frequently co-hosts This Morning, said: "We are so supportive of you and we love you to bits, we just wish it didn't end this way. It’s a sad day for everyone."
Craig also paid tribute to the host on This Morning, which he co-presented on Wednesday alongside Rochelle Humes.
He said: "On behalf of everyone here, in front and behind the camera, we just loved working with Holly. She made coming to work so much fun. We're all really sad, and we’re really going to miss her."
Humes continued: "Holly says she's incredibly proud of what she’s achieved on this show, and so are we."
Doyle added: "She will forever be one of us. But as Holly Willoughby knows only too well, the show must go on."
Another host of the popular morning show, Dermot O'Leary, wrote on Instagram that he has "nothing but love and respect" for her.
Original This Morning presenter Richard Madeley, speaking on Good Morning Britain, said Holly Willoughby is doing "a very brave, wise and courageous thing" by stepping down from the flagship daytime show.
Madeley, who fronted the show alongside wife Judy Finnigan from 1988 for 13 years, said: "We know that Holly genuinely puts family first, she puts her family first and her career second. And that really is the order.
"People watching don't know that, they just see Holly the professional, but she does put it first."
He continued: "I think given the year that she’s had, all the things that she’s had to put up with, and then this terrible thing that happened last week... given that she’s done the show for 14 years, which is a year longer than Judy and I did it when we left, I think it’s given her a chance to kind of step back and take stock and she’s put her family first.
"She’s going to focus on them for a while. She’ll come back, not to This Morning, but she’ll come back to do something else.
"But I think she’s done exactly the right thing for her own mental health department."
Madeley also said that the show's success is not solely down to the presenters: "When we left - and it was a bit of a shock, it was a bit undercover and subterfuge - we appeared on Channel 4, a lot of people said, 'Well, that's the end of This Morning, because This Morning is Richard and Judy’, which is obviously very flattering, but we knew it wasn’t true.
"Because the show isn’t about the faces, the presenters - it’s about the format.
"It’s a two-and-a-half-hour, three-hour formatted show, and obviously the presenters have to know what they’re doing and they have to get on and they have to do a professional job, but it’s the content, the format, that matters, and it will carry on."
Meanwhile, presenter Lorraine Kelly spoke about Willoughby's departure at the start of her ITV show Lorraine, reflecting on appearing as a guest on the morning show only a week ago: "I think it was last Tuesday… And it was lovely, and Holly was so relaxed and so happy, and her and Josie (Gibson) obviously get on like a house on fire."
She continued: "The whole place, it just felt as if things are getting back to normal, and then out of the blue this happens - this horrible, awful thing that she's having to deal with…"
Kelly added: "It just is a shame and, Holly, we wish you all the very best, you and your family. I know that must have been a terribly difficult decision because she loves the show. She loves the show."
