Holly Willoughby’s shock split! Insider warns: ‘Her life’s about to get toxic’

She’s the golden girl of TV, having gone from an unknown model to one of the most in-demand and popular presenters on our screens.

But while Holly Willoughby has spent most of her life in the spotlight drama-free – keeping her personal life private and shying away from controversy – last week it emerged that the star is embroiled in a legal battle with the agency that helped build her career.

Holly worked with celeb talent agency the YMU Group for 13 years, before leaving last August – but YMU has now reportedly demanded a cut of Holly’s future earnings in what’s known as a “sunset clause”. She’s now said to have hired lawyers to fight their demands and, if not resolved, it could end up in court.

The provision is thought to mean that YMU would be entitled to as much as 15 per cent of her future earnings from renewed contracts – which could mean, for example, that if she signed a new three-year deal with ITV worth £10 million, they’d be entitled to around £1.5 million of it.

Holly, 40 – mum to Harry, 11, Belle, nine, and six-year-old Chester with her TV producer husband Dan Baldwin – is now represented by her own all-female run agency called Roxy Management, which she reportedly set up after leaving YMU as she wanted more autonomy over her work schedule.

Speaking last year about her life, Holly said, “I’m really looking forward to [my 40s]. My 30s have been all about the kids – bringing them up, keeping all these balls afloat – but now they’re getting older, there’s a bit more space where I can start focusing on things that are happening for me. I see my 40s as a chance to find myself again and figure out who I am.”

During her time working with YMU, the agency helped Holly land gigs with This Morning and Dancing On Ice – both of which she hosts alongside her bestie Phillip Schofield – as well as her role as a panellist on comedy TV show Celebrity Juice, which she quit last year after more than a decade.

The agency also represents Phil, as well as some of Holly’s other closest pals, including Ant and Dec, Amanda Holden, Keith Lemon, aka comedian Leigh Francis, and her best friend Fearne Cotton.

The company – which also has Ant McPartlin’s fiancée Anne-Marie Corbett and Dec Donnelly’s wife Ali Astall as employees – even set up Holly’s gig on I’m A Celeb!, while Ant was on a TV hiatus following his drink-driving conviction in 2018.

And celebrity agent and author Melanie Blake – who spent 20 years as a talent agent at Urban Associates – says that, while it’s great Holly is standing her ground, the move is bound to create drama for her.

Melanie says, “Holly is brave to fight for what she believes to be unfair demands on her future earnings and I think it’s the right thing for her to do. She has set up her own management as she clearly wants to control her own future, so it will feel like this is holding her back.

“The agency has made an incredible amount of money with her and it’s obviously been a successful partnership for years, so it’s sad to see it end this way. If I had been her agent I would be walking away with grace and wanting to keep things on good terms. I don’t think it’s the right move to pursue her.

“This is going to be awkward for so many of their other clients who all have relationships with Holly, especially as they represent her co-star Phil. The relationship between an agent and the celebrity really is like a marriage – you’re so close and, as an agent, you know everything about the star. So Phil will be extremely close to those who work there – and just look at Ant and Dec and how they were romantically involved with people from their agency. This is bound to cause problems.

“Splitting acrimoniously from a talent agency is a bit like a divorce and things can get nasty, as it seems to have done here. There’s probably a lot more that has gone on behind the scenes for both sides to feel so strongly they want to fight like this. But for whoever wins and whoever loses, there’s the potential for a horrendous atmosphere to be created between Holly and Phil, who need to work together and, at the end of the day, none of this is good press for anybody.”

In 2019, Holly and Phil, 58, had been plagued with feud rumours, after reports claimed they’d had heated bust-ups off screen – but both vigourously denied the rumours, shortly before Phil came out as gay in February 2020.

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Last year, Holly and Phil survived ITV’s decision to make changes to the This Morning presenting line-up when Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary replaced Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes. And despite the major change to her working life, via her new company, it appeared Holly was determined to stay put – at least for the time being – with a show insider revealing last year, “Holly loves This Morning, she loves Phil and has no plans to leave.”

But former celebrity agent Jon Roseman says that the tension created by the legal battle may result in Holly and Phil going their separate ways, and warns that the state of affairs is bound to turn toxic.

Jon says, “It’s a very sticky situation. While it may not go all the way to court, it’s bound to cause toxicity in aspects of Holly’s life. It’s all such a close-knit world. And Phil will no doubt feel loyalty to his agency, as well as to Holly. There will without a doubt be tension and awkwardness between them as a result of all this. I really wouldn’t be surprised if there was a split between them in the future and they embark on more solo projects going forward.”

The Sunday Times Bestseller Ruthless Women by Melanie Blake (Head of Zeus, £12.99) is out now

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