Holly Willoughby may have "poured petrol" on the scandal surrounding her one-time close friend and former colleague Phillip Schofield, according to an expert.

The bubbly This Morning presenter, 42, disappeared from screens for an extended break after Phil, 61, exited the show after more than two decades. Initially, reports of a "feud" between the pair circulated before it later emerged Phil had an affair with a younger male ITV employee.

Upon her return to the hit daytime programme on 5 June, she resumed her presenting duties with an emotional speech that saw her fight back tears. Sitting beside co-presenter Josie Gibson, 38, Holly said she felt "shaken, troubled, let down and worried" during the last few weeks of controversy.

Referring to Phillip's lies about his affair on the show, Holly said: "We gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth."

But PR Crisis Comms expert, and CEO of Go Up, Edward Coram-James has said her pre-prepared statement may "have taken a bad situation and made it much, much worse". The expert branded Holly's statement, in which she only named her former colleague Phil once before going on to refer to him in the third person, a "case study of what not to do insofar as crisis comms and reputation management are concerned".

During her address to This Morning viewers, Holly said: "I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal, for the health and wellbeing of everyone." But Edward said by putting a focus on healing shortly after calling out Phil for "not telling the truth", it suggests the "love and support" people had given him was "misplaced" and Holly appeared "to set an aspiration for healing while creating the environment for scrap".

Edward said: "There's an old saying in PR: don't pick at the stitches. When something's healing, let it heal. There was a strong sense in the crisis comms community that, following Schofield's BBC interview, the story had come to the beginning of the end."

He believes Phillip had done a "relatively good job at earning a degree of sympathy from a decent slice of a public" who may have felt in the "absence of any allegations of illegality, non-consensual contact or grooming, the punishment [fit] the crime."

Edward believes Holly's statement reignited the discussion. He said: "To be clear, from a crisis comms point of view there was absolutely no need, whatsoever, for her to address the issue head-on or release any statement at all, beyond 'This is a deeply sad, personal and private matter and I don't have any comment at this time'."

While this potential response may have been "unsatisfactory", it would have been "de-escalatory". Instead, Edward argues Holly's decision to offer "a relatively no-holds-barred statement" has led many people on social media to criticise her, accusing her of being "cold" and "stabbing her old friend and mentor in the back".

Though she did garner some positive responses and support, a divide remains. Edward believes the "fragmented" support and opposition to Holly could pose "serious challenges for her career", especially considering her reputation for being kind, bubbly and warm.

The expert warns her statement could "have done irrecoverable damage to her friend-next-door image". He claims that in their PR responses, ITV, Phil and Holly have all "taken a bad situation and made it much, much worse". He added: "Far from pouring water over the problem, Willoughby may well have poured petrol on it and lit the fuse."

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