ITV stars rally round Holly Willoughby as she faces cruel trolling after 'shocking kidnap plot'

ITV has shared its support to Holly Willoughby and her family after it was claimed she was left 'terrified' amid the alleged kidnap plot.

Willoughby, 42, remains under police guard at her London home with her husband Daniel Baldwin, 49, and their three children: Harry, 14, Belle, 12, and Chester, 8.

A spokesperson for ITV told Yahoo! News: "This news has come as a huge shock to everyone at This Morning and ITV. We are providing all of the support we can to Holly and her family at this incredibly distressing time."

Watch Lorraine Kelly share a special message for Holly Willoughby:

On This Morning Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond opened the show with their moving words.

O'Leary said: "We are not going to talk too much about it but Holly is on the front pages after police arrested a 36 year old man over an alleged kidnap plot. He has now been charged by Essex Police."

Hammond added: "We are obviously all shocked to hear the news and we want to send our love and biggest hugs to Holly and her family."

Her ITV co-star Kelly also shared her concerns for Willoughby following The Sun's front page revealing the details of the attempted kidnap allegations.

Read more: ‘Distraught’ Holly Willoughby ‘under police guard’ as man arrested over alleged kidnap plot (Independent - 3 min read)

She said on her show: "Our Holly is on the front page of The Sun newspaper. Very upsetting. Sending Holly all of our love and wishes. Terrible thing for her and her family."

Holly Willoughby 'kidnap plot'

The daytime TV darling was missing from This Morning on Thursday which sparked concern on social media.

It later emerged Willoughby was pulled from the small screen just moments before air when police told ITV bosses of the alleged kidnapping plot.

Hours before the story hit headlines, Willoughby shared a candid post about dealing with anxiety.

She shared on her Wylde Moon account: "If you or someone you love suffers with anxiety, you know how difficult it can be to cope with. You are not alone." Included in the post was a link to tips and advice from Louise Chunn, founder of WellDoing.org.

Essex police named Gavin Plumb, 36, of Potters Field, Harlow, who has been charged with soliciting to commit murder and incitement to commit kidnap.

In a statement, Det Supt Rob Kirby said: "This was an extremely fast paced investigation, with many of our officers and national partners working overnight to secure these charges.

"The safeguarding of any victim is paramount and we will continue to prioritise this and working with the Metropolitan Police Service as the investigation proceeds."

Read more: Holly Willoughby: Man charged and named over ‘plot to kidnap and harm This Morning star’ (Independent, 5 min read)

Holly Willoughby was trending on Twitter in the wake of the news. Among the sea of comments, one person wrote: "I don't watch her TV show but I do feel sorry for Holly Willoughby."

"Why would someone want to kidnap Holly Willoughby (crying emojis)."

"Poor Holly Willoughby."

"Who in their right mind would wake up one morning and think I know... I'll kidnap Holly Willoughby."

While Willoughby was sent many messages of support, she also faced cruel trolling at this difficult time for her and her family. Some people wrote on Twitter: "I don't want to take away from anything that may a truly could have happened, it just feels like this Holly Willoughby sitch could be a lil sus following a year of her image being tattered." (sic)

"Holly Willoughby... Are you ok? The nation is not so worried about you!"

Watch: Holly Willoughby breaks silence on This Morning claims