Ant and Dec took a swipe at Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on their podcast Hanging Out, reminiscing about the 'queue-gate' scandal that nearly ended the pair's careers.
In 2022, the former This Morning hosts were accused of 'skipping' a 13-hour queue to see the Queen lying in state, though they argued they were at Westminster Hall to file a report for ITV.
Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were discussing their desire to see the Bayeux Tapestry, which has drawn huge crowds since going on display in the UK, when Ant joked: 'If anyone from the British Museum is watching this podcast in their downtime... I'd like to jump the queue.'
Appearing to reference Willoughby and Schofield, Dec replied: 'I'm not sure about TV presenters skipping queues. I don't think that's going to end well!'
Ant carried on: 'What could possibly go wrong? It's just scuttle down the side, pop in the front.' Dec added sarcastically: 'Do you think that's the end? Nobody's gonna say anything about it.'
The 2022 queue-gate scandal
Footage of Willoughby and Schofield at Westminster Hall first emerged on September 16, 2022, sparking fury after images appeared to show them 'skipping the queue' of mourners. The pair maintained their visit was 'strictly for reporting.'
Joe Tomkins, a builder from Nottingham who had queued for 14 hours overnight in freezing temperatures, told The Sun the broadcasters walked straight past mourners. 'People were saying, "Oi, Phil, Holly, get to the back of the queue!" Phil looked around and smiled as if to say, "We can do what we want,"' he said. 'There was a real hatred for them, it wasn't right. People were tired, frustrated, some were crying... so to see those two sail past without a care in the world really angered us.'
An ITV spokesperson disputed the account, saying: 'This account is not a fair and accurate representation of what happened or of the timings of that day. Phillip and Holly did not file past the Queen's coffin. They were alongside a host of other broadcasters to cover the death of the Queen.'
A This Morning source told the paper that Phillip and Holly had actually stopped afterwards for selfies with fans who asked, adding: 'There was no ill will.' Even so, a petition calling for the pair to be fired gathered more than 50,000 signatures.
Fallout at This Morning
TV insiders reportedly raised 'serious concerns' for the presenters' wellbeing after they appeared tearful and muted on air in the aftermath. ITV issued a statement, later broadcast on the show and voiced over by Willoughby, which stopped short of the word 'sorry,' leaving many viewers furious.
A source told the Daily Mail at the time: 'Every word of the statement was pored over. In the end, it's spectacularly backfired. Initially Holly and Phillip were prepared to say sorry if they'd upset anyone as they both just desperately want to draw a line under the affair. But they were advised strongly not to go down that road of saying sorry.'
In the first episode of the show after the row broke, Willoughby and Schofield denied claims they were 'too posh to queue,' insisting they had been at Westminster Hall on the Friday 'strictly for the purpose of reporting on the event.' The voiceover added: 'Please know that we would never jump a queue.' Willoughby was said to have been hit particularly hard by the online backlash, with sources previously saying she felt 'left out to dry.'
What happened next
Eight months after the incident, Willoughby's involvement in queue-gate was overshadowed when Schofield admitted to an 'unwise but not illegal' affair with a younger male colleague. The revelation plunged This Morning into disarray, triggering allegations of a toxic culture behind the scenes, and Schofield ultimately resigned from ITV.
Willoughby, 45, stayed on for a few more months but also resigned that year after it emerged she had been the intended victim of a kidnap and murder plot. She now hosts her own YouTube series, Together, which has been panned by critics.
