Holly Willoughby says 'nothing can prepare you' as she breaks silence on 'tough' year
Holly Willoughby has opened up about her challenging year for the first time. The 43-year-old presenter took a break from the screen for most of 2024 to focus on her family and other important aspects of her life following a harrowing experience when security guard Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life imprisonment for planning to kidnap, rape and murder her.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, she said: "It’s been a tough one. There’s no way of sugar-coating it."
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Holly, who shares children Harry, 15, Belle, 13, and Chester, 10, with husband Dan Baldwin, asserted that allowing the horrific incident to consume her was never an option. She reflected: "Nothing can prepare you for something like that.
When something like that happens, you have a decision to make. You either decide, right, I can take this on board and it can absolutely affect all aspects of my life.
"Or I can make a choice to go, let’s focus on everything that’s positive and good, all those important things. I’m healthy and I’m happy. I’ve got a wonderful husband and children and family, I’ve got great friends."
She added that she chose to move forward positively, relying on the police, court, judge, and jury to fulfil their roles. When questioned whether she could have been overwhelmed by recent events, she firmly stated: "No. It wasn’t an option. For me, it’s just not an option. For all those reasons, I’ve said.
"That all means too much to me, to let, you know, that be the other road I could have gone down. And look, so many people go through tough things — they just do."
She further added: "I mean, every single person I speak to, and it seems more and more currently are going through something, you know?
"I think that — although I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anybody at all — sometimes things go wrong, but you have to keep going for it because that’s all you can do."
The 'Dancing On Ice' host made headlines when she decided to leave 'This Morning' amidst being implicated in a kidnap plot in October 2023, which followed shortly after her co-presenter Philip Schofield exited due to a controversial yet legal relationship with a young male staffer. Discussing her departure, Holly revealed that deciding to step away was far from difficult, explaining: "That question is wrapped up in so many things that were going on at that time. But no. That was the last thing on my mind. The choice [to step away] was really simple and easy, actually.
"I knew that I would come back. It was important for me to get back to normality for lots of reasons."