Holly Willoughby says falling in love with her husband took her 'by surprise'

Holly Willoughby has revealed she was stunned when she fell for her husband Dan Baldwin because the pair were such good friends.

The TV star, 40, said she realised she was in love with Baldwin as they were enjoying a drink together and that it took her “so by surprise”.

Speaking on Loose Women, she said: “We met on Saturday mornings and we became really ridiculously close friends, it was this intensity of friendship for about 10 to 15 weeks and I remember cheersing him with a glass and I was looking at him and like ‘Oh my God, I fancy him, I fancy my friend!’

Read more: Holly Willoughby addresses rumours she is quitting This Morning

"It took me so by surprise and I thought, ‘Oh God, what’s just happened?’

"And the relationship carried on. And I think in hindsight, I was falling in love with him. I think that’s what that intensity was, but I didn’t necessarily recognise it.”

The pair went on to tie the knot in 2007 and have three children together – Harry, 12, Belle, 10, and seven-year-old Chester.

And This Morning presenter Willoughby said the romantic relationship hasn’t changed the fact that Baldwin is still her best friend.

“He knows me better than anyone, he’s my absolute support,” she said.

“He gives the best advice of anybody, he’s got that strength and good moral fibre, so I always check and run everything past him.”

Willoughby also chatted about her best-selling book Reflections, saying it is “a marker in the sand of where I find myself in life right now”.

“Up until this point, I had all these plates spinning,” she said.

“I had children, I got married, I got the house, I was working, building myself in my career. And all of those things are lovely and wonderful, but there’s no doubt when you get to a certain age and you get a little bit more time back because the kids don’t rely on you so much and you get a spare hour in the day.

Read more: Holly Willoughby in 'utter shock' after being fat-shamed as young model

"Especially when I went to Australia and I had this two-week period of having no-one to look after apart from myself. I sat there with myself and I thought, ‘God, this is really weird’ and it really felt like something was missing.

"It scared me a little bit and I realised the thing that was missing was me.”

Loose Women is on weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and ITV Hub.

Watch: Phil and Holly crack up after guest breaks wind