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Celebrity

14th Jan 2022

Holly Willoughby says she was surprised when she fell in love with her “best friend”

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Adorable.

Holly Willoughby has revealed that she was “surprised” when she realised that she had fallen in love with her best friend.

The This Morning presenter gave some insight into her 14 year marriage to Dan Baldwin, something she rarely does.

Opening up on Loose Women, Holly told the panel that she had an “intense friendship” with Baldwin for three months before she realised what her true feelings were saying.

She said: “We met on Saturday mornings and we became really ridiculously close friends.

“It was this intensity of friendship for about 10-15 weeks, and I remember cheers-ing him with a glass and I was looking at him and like, ‘Oh my God, I fancy him, I fancy my friend!’

“It took me so by surprise and I thought, ‘Oh God, what’s just happened?’

“I think in hindsight, I was falling in love with him. I think that’s what that intensity was, but I didn’t necessarily recognise it.”

The couple got married in 2007 and share three children together, Harry, 12, Belle, 10, and Chester, seven.

And after nearly 15 years of marriage, Holly still insists Dan is “definitely” still her best friend.

“He knows me better than anyone, he’s my absolute support,” she said.

“He gives the best advice of anybody, he’s got that strength and good moral fibre, so I always check and run everything past him.”

Speaking about using “emotional kinesiology” and re-engaging with buried feelings after hosting I’m a Celeb in 2018, she says she only fell more in love with Dan after.

She added: “I don’t think it caused a switch, because whenever you’re becoming more of yourself, you’re becoming more of what that person truly and actually fell in love with in the first place.”