The 37-year-old mother-of-three ended up in hysterics during a phone-in with Vanessa Feltz, 56, when an anonymous caller explained how she had been told not to announce her third pregnancy to her in-laws. “My stepsister-in-law has just announced that she’s pregnant. I’m also three months pregnant and she told me yesterday not to tell any of her family because she wants all the attention on her,” the This Morning called said, as Holly Willoughby looked stunned. “Her mother, my stepmother-in-law, is excited about her first grandchild.”
“That’s her first child, first pregnancy, first grandchild, this is your third?” Holly asked.
“Yeah, it’s my third,” the woman replied.
“And you’re meant to just keep that a secret so she gets all the attention?” Holly clarified, visibly shocked by the demand.
“Yeah,” the caller said, at which point, This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield, 56, interjected: “Forever? I mean, how long does this go on for?”
Holly burst out laughing, while the woman said: “I have no idea. And it upset me also because although her mother isn’t biologically my childrens’ grandmother, they see her in that role and that upset me that they’d been brushed aside, that they’re not important.”
Unable to contain herself anymore, Vanessa blasted: “Okay, alright. Now, I’m trying to keep calm here and I’m trying to keep my language appropriate for the television at this time of day.
“You need to tell this young lady to take a great big hike, but in as rude a words as you want to choose,” she exclaimed.
“It is none of her business when you announce that you are pregnant.
“She doesn’t get to dictate that to you. That is way, way beyond the bounds of what any step-sister-in-law is allowed to do,” Vanessa seethed.
“And those pregnancies are equally wonderful on their own merit, you’re not comparing one against the other, who would do that?” Holly chimed in, trying to calm the conversation back down. “They’ll grow up together, it’s amazing.”
“It’s not something that she is required to have an opinion about,” Vanessa declared passionately.
Phillip wondered whether there might be a compromise which Vanessa should be suggesting, to which the agony aunt insisted: “No, no!”
She went on to urge the caller to shout her joyful news from the rooftops as loudly as possible, causing Holly to giggle at her blunt advice.
“I think, however, go about your business as you would have done had she not have text you, don’t maybe trumpet it from the rooftops in an extra big way,” the This Morning host laughed.
“Do! Do it much more loudly than you would have done it before,” Vanessa countered.
As Holly struggled to stifle her laughter at the indignation of her co-stars, Phillip joked they could give the caller the number of someone who could print her pregnancy announcement on a banner and fly it behind a plane.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.