Gino D’ACampo, 42, has jumped to the defence of Phillip Schofield, after reports of an apparent feud between him and Amanda Holden emerged.
It came after reports suggested Amanda was annoyed after Phillip “pushed” for Rochelle Humes to present alongside him on This Morning last year, when Holly Willoughby was away filming for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
After Amanda appeared to confirm the spat with Phillip on Heart Radio last month, the latter addressed the claims on Twitter to say he was the “easiest, most fun person to work with”.
Gino has now spoken out to defend his This Morning co-star and said he’s a “real friend” of his.
Addressing the claims and what Phillip is like behind-the-scenes, Gino spilled exclusively to Express.co.uk: “Talking about Phillip Schofield is like talking about Terry Wogan.”
“These iconic people, they are the masters of television,” he said.
“They are super professional, super friendly, very easy to be with.”
Gino said working with Phillip is a “real joy” and insisted he only works with people who are “good people”.
The chef continued: “He’s a real a friend of mine, they’re not always just colleagues, he’s a real joy.”
“I choose to do the shows where the presenters are good, in a way in which they are good people. These are the people I want to work with.”
“If they’re nasty people, I’m not interested,” he said, before adding: “Life is too short.”
Phillip recently addressed the claims about an apparent feud with Amanda in view of his four million Twitter followers.
He wrote: “The end of another really sad weekend.
“When you try for 35 years to be the easiest, most fun person to work with and you read such hurtful and wildly untrue stories from nameless ‘sources’.
“Obviously I’ll take it on the chin.. I just hope you know me better.”
In light of the reports, an ITV spokesperson said: “Presenter line ups on This Morning change regularly and final decisions on these line ups are made by producers and not the presenters.
“Phillip Schofield is a much loved broadcaster and part of the ITV family. He is a consummate professional and held in high regard at ITV.”
Meanwhile, Gino also spoke about his Channel 5 show, Gino’s Win Your Wishlist, and admitted he “loves” doing it.
“It’s one of my favourite things to film,” he said. “Channel 5 are very generous to me, they say we want you to do it and we want you to be yourself and just relax, enjoy. And that’s exactly what I do.”
He continued: “I never thought I would do a show like this, I do cooking shows and I run restaurants, I write books and that’s my job.
“So this came up completely out of the blue and I was really happy. I’m very happy with the show.”
Gino’s Win Your Wish List, Sunday’s 8pm on Channel 5.