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Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
'My mum was snatched from pub - sick killer tormented me with secret taken to grave'
It has been more than 20 years since mum-of-three Michelle Gunshon was abducted, raped, and murdered, but her family still does not have proper closure because her sick killer kept a major secret Michelle Gunshon was 38-years-old when she vanished without a trace, and now a new documentary is exploring the tragedy of what happened to the beloved mum. The parent-of-three had travelled to the Birmingham area for a job working as a security guard at the Clothes Show Live at the NEC, and at first everything seemed normal. It was a winter's night when Michelle checked into the Dubliner's Pub on 3 December 2004, where she and some colleagues were staying in the Digbeth establishment while the Clothes Show was going on. The following day, the security guard phoned up her partner and her daughter and chatted with them, but it would be the very last time they ever heard her voice. Meanwhile, a woman vanished in car crash - then turned up months later with wild story. On December 5, Michelle's colleagues noticed her absence, and they went into the room she was staying in, only to find all her personal effects were still there - including her wallet. Michelle was reported as a missing person, and an investigation quickly got underway. Within a couple of days, her Ford Escort had been found abandoned nearby, and inside were traces of her blood and a man's DNA. The police had a suspect thanks to CCTV that had caught Martin Stafford - who worked as a glass collector in the pub - driving Michelle's vehicle in Birmingham city centre with something strapped into the passenger seat, after she had gone missing. But Stafford had himself disappeared seemingly without a trace. He had fled back to his home country, the Republic of Ireland, and was lying low. Further CCTV is reported to have captured two figures approaching Michelle's car the night she disappeared, walking very closely together, before the car drove off. Stafford had a history of sexual violence against women and false imprisonment. However, Michelle's family had to wait an agonising seven years for him to be extradited back from Ireland and brought to justice. He was convicted of false imprisonment, rape, murder, and preventing the burial of a body in 2012, but despite the campaigning of Michelle's brave daughter Tracy Richardson, he refused to ever reveal the whereabouts of Michelle's body, leaving her family trapped in an agonising limbo. The terrifying killer didn't hesitate to continue to inflict as much pain on his victim's family as possible: he flatly refused to reveal what he had done with Michelle's remains until the day he died. "My mum's body has never been found because Stafford wanted to use that final bit of power and control that he had over us by keeping it a secret, even when he was found guilty," Tracy previously told The Sun. "How are you supposed to grieve when there's no body? And there are all the other emotions too - anger and frustration." Tracy even admitted that she has been to Birmingham herself in an attempt to find her mother's remains, without having much of a clue where to start, and revealed the police don't have any leads either. In 2015, at the age of 47, twisted Stafford died of liver disease and pneumonia behind bars where he was serving a 33-year sentence - taking his last secret to the grave with him. Tracy told the Manchester Evening News of the moment she found out Stafford had died: "At first I was relieved, but within a minute I thought, but what about my mum?" She added: "I went to Birmingham and sat outside the pub, the last place my mum was seen, I sat there and said, 'Mum he's dead now. I don't know what to do.'" Tracy has previously said that documentaries like the new Channel 5 offering about her mum's case - Murdered at First Sight: A Mother's Absence - give her some hope that new information might be brought to light, with the potential for someone's memory to be jogged by watching. "Documentaries like this take us back to that day she was killed," Tracy told BirminghamLive."She is still out there and we don't know where - we've never had any closure. "My mum has nobody apart from us, and the only way we can get her name out there is by doing these documentaries - and maybe one day someone might watch it who has information. You never know. "In my head I know it's unlikely she'll be found, but in my heart I think 'what if?' We want to give her a place to rest - we don't want her out in the cold. How can you grieve somebody when no-one is there?" Criminologist Alex Iszatt explains exclusively to the Mirror that Stafford's refusal to admit where Michelle's remains are was a "last vicious twist of the knife," and a sick power play even from behind bars, and in 2015, when he died in prison, his secret went with him. "Martin Stafford's refusal to reveal Michelle Gunshon's resting place, even on his deathbed, was a final act of control," the expert explains. "It was a last, vicious twist of the knife. This was never just about concealing a body, it was about using silence as a weapon to prolong the family's grief. "For offenders like Stafford, withholding information is the ultimate power play. It proves that even when they are locked up and stripped of freedom, they can still inflict pain. There are different reasons why men like this stay quiet. Keeping the secret means Michelle's family remain trapped in uncertainty, still forced to live on his terms. "Admitting where the body lies might also have risked further forensic scrutiny or even exposed other crimes. And for some killers, there is a deep narcissism in being the only one who knows the truth. It allows them to remain at the centre of the story long after they should have faded into nothing."
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Man raped and murdered British mum - then tormented family with 'one last sick twist'
Exclusive: Michelle Gunshon, a mother of three, was raped and murdered in 2004 by Martin Stafford. The cold-hearted killer went onto cruelly torment her family by keeping a huge secret Michelle Gunshon, 38, had been working as a security guard at the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham when she vanished without a trace. It was a cold December night when Michelle, from Mill Hill in North London, checked into the Dubliner's Pub while she was working at the major event held in the NEC. Michelle rang her partner and daughter on 4 December - but this contact would be the last her loved ones ever shared with her. The following day, her colleagues noticed that something was amiss and that no one had seen her, so they went into the room she had been staying in at the Digbeth pub, only to find all her important personal items, like her wallet, were chillingly still there. Within days, Michelle's car was found, having been abandoned near the area, and it contained traces of her blood and a man's DNA. The police quickly had a suspect when Martin Stafford was spotted on CCTV driving the vehicle after she had disappeared, with "something in the car" strapped into the passenger seat of the Ford Escort. Other footage showed two people approaching the motor, moving closely together, before it was driven off. Stafford, who had been working as a glass collector in the pub and had a history of sexual violence, quickly fled to his native Ireland. It would be seven years before he was discovered, extradited, and brought to justice for her disappearance, with her family living through agony. In 2012, he was convicted of her murder, false imprisonment, and rape. Despite Stafford's conviction, for over 20 years, the family of Michelle Gunshon has been denied proper closure over the tragedy they have endured, with the sick criminal refusing to give up the location of Michelle's body, leading him to also be convicted of preventing the burial of a body. Expert criminologist Alex Iszatt explains exclusively to the Mirror that Stafford's refusal to admit where Michelle's remains are was a "last vicious twist of the knife," and a sick power play even from behind bars, and in 2015, when he died in prison, his secret went with him. "Martin Stafford's refusal to reveal Michelle Gunshon's resting place, even on his deathbed, was a final act of control," the expert explains. "It was a last, vicious twist of the knife. This was never just about concealing a body, it was about using silence as a weapon to prolong the family's grief. "For offenders like Stafford, withholding information is the ultimate power play. It proves that even when they are locked up and stripped of freedom, they can still inflict pain. There are different reasons why men like this stay quiet. Keeping the secret means Michelle's family remain trapped in uncertainty, still forced to live on his terms. "Admitting where the body lies might also have risked further forensic scrutiny or even exposed other crimes. "And for some killers, there is a deep narcissism in being the only one who knows the truth. It allows them to remain at the centre of the story long after they should have faded into nothing." Tracy Richardson, Michelle's daughter, has campaigned publicly against prisoners being eligible for parole if they refuse to disclose the whereabouts of their victim's body, and has been candid about her struggle with still not knowing her mum's whereabouts after all these years. "This silence adds another layer of trauma," Alex says about the impact of Stafford's silence on Michelle's heartbroken family. "Without a grave to visit, without an answer to the most basic question of where her mother rests, the grieving process cannot move forward. The absence of a body mirrors the absence of justice. It shows how cruelty can outlive the offender himself. "Stafford's silence was not passive. It was deliberate. It was the last act of violence he had left to commit. And that is exactly why he chose it." Michelle's case is the subject of a new documentary for Channel Five, called Murdered at First Sight: A Mother's Absence. It airs on Tuesday at 10pm.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Welsh clothing designer loses 'David and Goliath' court battle against fashion giant Boohoo.com after judge rules 'copied' swimsuits had 'low originality'
A clothing designer has lost her 'David and Goliath' court battle against Boohoo over claims it copied her clothing designs. In a chastening ruling, a judge said Sonia Edwards' garments had 'low originality' while also saying it was unlikely the fast-fashion giant was looking at her social media channels as he Instagram account only had 268 followers. The 53-year-old, from Newport, Gwent, had for years accused Boohoo and four linked companies of using her designs. She took the firm to London 's High Court over the alleged infringement of five of her designs in a bid for compensation. Ms Edwards also wanted to prevent the companies from importing or selling items which she claimed were copies of her designs. She also wanted a court declaration that Boohoo had infringed the design rights of her company, Cwtchy Cwtchy. But Judge Tom Micheson KC has thrown out her case saying: 'The stark truth is that there are also only so many ways to design clothing to fit the human body.' The self-taught designer began her career in 2010, exhibiting at the Clothes Show Live in 2011, where her signature 'Infinite' multiway bikini top first hit the catwalk. Celebrities, including Liss Jones from The Voice and Welsh media personality Lateysha Grace, have worn her designs, while her work has also featured in Vogue. Judge Micheson found that despite ' that designs are copied from social media on occasion' by Boohoo companies, it was unlikely hers was as she 'had just 268 Instagram followers in 2020'. The companies Ms Edwards sued alongside were Ltd, Nasty Gal Ltd, Miss Pap UK Ltd, and Debenhams Brands Ltd. The alleged infringements related to five designs marketed by Boohoo or the linked companies: a halter neck bikini top; rib organza mesh puff sleeve top; Taylor velvet ruched midi skirt; a twist front skirt, and leather front ruched leggings. Presenting her own case against a team of lawyers representing Boohoo and the other companies she told the judge she began to notice more of her designs proliferating online during the Covid lockdown. Focusing on her 'infinite bikini' line, she said the garment could be 'tied in lots of different ways,' alleging that a similar item has been marketed by one of the defending companies, Nasty Gal Ltd. At issue with the bikini were several telltale features which she said betray the products marketed by Nasty Gal as copied from her work. This included a top strap that forms 'one piece' without fastening and two front breast panels with 'openings at the top and bottom allowing the strap to be passed through'. SONIA'S DESIGN: Skirt designed by Ms Edwards, which she alleges has been copied by the fashion giant BOOHOO'S DESIGN: The Taylor velvet ruched midi skirt However, Boohoo's KC, Andrew Norris, argued that the alleged similarities are not specific enough to be protected under copyright law. 'These features do not describe protectable shape and configuration,' he said. 'They are concepts and methods of construction and are not protectable features in design law in accordance with the Act.' Adding that the concept of a 'multiway' bikini was 'well established,' the barrister claimed there was nothing unique about the disputed design, noting that its 'selling point' for Ms Edwards was the fact that its wearer can change how they wear it according to their whims. 'Whether the top strap forms one piece or is two pieces - i.e. which way the ends of the strap go - is the wearer's choice and is not the shape or configuration of the design,' he said. Giving his ruling, the judge said: 'The claimant has been complaining for a number of years about the alleged copying of her clothing designs by various big fashion brands, including ASOS, Missguided, Moschino and Shein. Her complaints against boohoo have also been going on for some years.' Dealing with the bikini, the judge threw out Ms Edwards' claim, saying the opportunity for any copying was 'extremely limited,' citing the 'relatively low profile' of Ms Edwards' social media channels. 'The contemporaneous material shows that the claimant had only a handful of likes and comments on the Facebook pages showing her designs over the relevant period. Her Instagram account Scrunchbooty had just 268 followers in 2020,' the judge said. He said it was more likely that someone would have come up with a similar design themselves without copying Ms Edwards' ideas. 'That is a function of the low originality of the claimant's is generic enough that other people in the industry are quite capable of coming up with the same design independently,' he said. 'For all these reasons and in spite of the that designs are copied from social media on occasion by the defendants, I reject the suggestion that the claimant's (bikini) has been copied in the present case.' He went on to dismiss the claims relating to the other garments too, finding that the 'defendants did not copy the claimant's designs.' 'I recognise that Ms Edwards will be disappointed in this outcome. She has campaigned for some time to shine a light on what she sees as injustice against the small designer in the fashion industry. 'I have no doubt that her grievances are sincerely held, but she has subjected the defendants and others to a torrent of complaints over a period of many years. 'Regrettably, the complaints that I have had to adjudicate are misdirected, either as a matter of fact or law, or both. 'I acknowledge that copying undoubtedly takes place within the fashion industry, particularly in fast fashion. Every time the defendants ask manufacturers to reproduce images found on social media, there is a risk of someone's design right being infringed. 'But the stark truth is that there are also only so many ways to design clothing to fit the human body. 'Given the enormous numbers of articles being churned out by the likes of the defendants each week, it is completely unsurprising that as a matter of chance, some of these resemble articles designed previously by others, including the claimant. 'And whilst the probability of chance reproduction in such circumstances is high, the likelihood of a fast fashion company using a social media feed with few followers published many years ago is low.
The Independent
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Welsh designer loses court battle against fashion giants Boohoo over bikini copy claim
A bikini designer has lost a David and Goliath court campaign against online fast-fashion giant Sonia Edwards, 53, from Newport, Gwent, began her design career in 2010, exhibiting at the Clothes Show Live in 2011, where her signature 'Infinite' multiway bikini top first hit the catwalk. Celebrities, including Liss Jones from The Voice and Welsh media personality Lateysha Grace, have worn her designs, while her work has also featured in Vogue. But she has now lost a legal clash with and four linked companies over alleged infringements in relation to five designs, including the bikini top, after a judge said that her swimwear had "low originality". He also found that despite " that designs are copied from social media on occasion" by Boohoo companies, it was unlikely her design had been seen to be copied by Boohoo's designers, as she "had just 268 Instagram followers in 2020". Rejecting her complaints of copying, he said: "The stark truth is that there are also only so many ways to design clothing to fit the human body." The companies Ms Edwards sued alongside were Ltd, Nasty Gal Ltd, Miss Pap UK Ltd, and Debenhams Brands Ltd. The alleged infringements related to five designs marketed by Boohoo or the linked companies: a halter neck bikini top; rib organza mesh puff sleeve top; Taylor velvet ruched midi skirt; a twist front skirt, and leather front ruched leggings. Presenting her own case against a team of lawyers representing Boohoo and the other companies, Ms Edwards sought a court order preventing them from importing or selling various fashion items which she claimed are copies of her designs, plus a court declaration that Boohoo has infringed the design rights of her company, Cwtchy Cwtchy, with compensation to be paid. She told Judge Tom Micheson KC at London's High Court: 'I am a self-taught designer who relies on a hands-on, improvised approach when designing, through trial and error until I produce a design that satisfies my own visions. I don't follow trends, and work with my own creative freedom." Ms Edwards told the judge she began to notice more of her designs proliferating online during the Covid lockdown. Focusing on her 'infinite bikini' line, she said the garment could be 'tied in lots of different ways,' alleging that a similar item has been marketed by one of the defending companies, Nasty Gal Ltd. At issue with the bikini were several telltale features which she said betray the products marketed by Nasty Gal as copied from her work, including a top strap that forms 'one piece' without fastening and two front breast panels with 'openings at the top and bottom allowing the strap to be passed through'. However, Boohoo's KC, Andrew Norris, argued that the alleged similarities are not specific enough to be protected under copyright law. 'These features do not describe protectable shape and configuration," he said. "They are concepts and methods of construction and are not protectable features in design law in accordance with…the Act.' Adding that the concept of a 'multiway' bikini was 'well established,' the barrister claimed there was nothing unique about the disputed design, noting that its 'selling point' for Ms Edwards was the fact that its wearer can change how they wear it according to their whims. 'Whether the top strap forms one piece or is two pieces - i.e. which way the ends of the strap go - is the wearer's choice and is not the shape or configuration of the design,' he said. Giving his ruling, the judge said: "This is an action for infringement of unregistered design right in the design of various items of clothing. The particular sector in issue is fast-fashion - where companies engage in releasing hundreds of different styles of low-cost garments per week, based on current trends found in social media. "The claimant, Sonia Edwards, began designing clothing in 2010. She mainly promoted herself through social media with the aim of licensing her designs to others. "Her work at that time achieved recognition in Vogue Magazine and Drapers Magazine and was featured by The Fashion Network amongst others. She also exhibited at the Clothes Show Live in 2011, at the NEC in Birmingham. She has recently given up designing clothing, partly as a result of the present litigation. "The defendants are all part of boohoo, the well-known fast-fashion group. "The claimant has been complaining for a number of years about the alleged copying of her clothing designs by various big fashion brands, including ASOS, Missguided, Moschino and Shein. Her complaints against boohoo have also been going on for some years. "The claimant's case is that she possesses unregistered design right in the shape and configuration of garment designs. "The defendants say that the claimed features are really descriptions of generalised concepts, rather than actual shape and configuration in the design." Dealing with the bikini, the judge threw out Ms Edwards' claim, said the opportunity for any copying was "extremely limited," citing the "relatively low profile" of Ms Edwards' social media channels. "The contemporaneous material shows that the claimant had only a handful of likes and comments on the Facebook pages showing her designs over the relevant period. Her Instagram account Scrunchbooty had just 268 followers in 2020." He said it was more likely that someone would have come up with a similar design themselves without copying Ms Edwards' ideas. "That is a function of the low originality of the claimant's design ...which is generic enough that other people in the industry are quite capable of coming up with the same design independently," he said. "For all these reasons and in spite of the that designs are copied from social media on occasion by the defendants, I reject the suggestion that the claimant's (bikini) has been copied in the present case." He went on to dismiss the claims relating to the other garments too, finding that the "defendants did not copy the claimant's designs." "I recognise that Ms Edwards will be disappointed in this outcome. She has campaigned for some time to shine a light on what she sees as injustice against the small designer in the fashion industry. "I have no doubt that her grievances are sincerely held, but she has subjected the defendants and others to a torrent of complaints over a period of many years. Regrettably, the complaints that I have had to adjudicate are misdirected, either as a matter of fact or law, or both. "I acknowledge that copying undoubtedly takes place within the fashion industry, particularly in fast fashion. Every time the defendants ask manufacturers to reproduce images found on social media, there is a risk of someone's design right being infringed. "But the stark truth is that there are also only so many ways to design clothing to fit the human body. "Given the enormous numbers of articles being churned out by the likes of the defendants each week, it is completely unsurprising that as a matter of chance, some of these resemble articles designed previously by others, including the claimant. "And whilst the probability of chance reproduction in such circumstances is high, the likelihood of a fast fashion company using a social media feed with few followers published many years ago is low. "It is for these reasons that I have dismissed the claimant's suspicions about alleged copying by the defendants."
The Independent
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Holly Willoughby's Netflix comeback after her annus horribilis proves she's our most resilient TV star
It's been a tough one.' Holly Willoughby 's recent summary of what has surely been the most difficult year and a half of her life was an understatement, to say the least. In October 2023, the queen of daytime television stepped down from her role as the host of ITV's This Morning, after a disturbing plan to kidnap, rape and kill her was foiled. The impact on Willoughby, who bravely waived her right to anonymity at the start of the trial, was 'life-changing' and 'catastrophic', according to her barrister. The horrifying ordeal came during an already difficult time in her professional life, as Willoughby had only just been caught up in the workplace drama that engulfed This Morning that summer. Phillip Schofield, her co-star and close friend for almost 20 years, left ITV after admitting to an 'unwise but not illegal' affair with a younger co-worker. The fallout was huge, and, perhaps unfairly, seemed to tarnish Willoughby by association. No wonder she chose to retreat from the spotlight for a while. But in recent months, Willoughby has made a slow but assured return to our screens, returning to her longstanding role as the host of Dancing on Ice and also helming ITV's primetime reboot of game show You Bet! Now, she's taking on her biggest job yet, as the host of Netflix reality show Celebrity Bear Hunt, which will be available to stream across world. Somewhat aptly, it's all about survival. It could hardly be further away from the staid world of UK daytime television – but Willoughby has always been good at reinvention. Her warm onscreen manner and breezy way of styling out gaffes make it easy to assume that Willoughby was born with easy confidence. But speaking to the nation on camera would have been a nightmare scenario for teenage Holly, who grew up in Sussex, where she attended private school with her older sister, Kelly. 'I was not a big talker at school – I never liked people seeing my braces so I walked around with my sleeves pulled over my hands and my hands over my mouth in case anybody saw me smiling,' she told The Guardian. She was also ashamed of her dyslexia, which wasn't diagnosed until her late teens, and caused her to struggle with spelling. This diffidence meant she wasn't a natural candidate for a career in the spotlight. Her first brush with fame came in the time-honoured Nineties fashion, when she was scouted as a model on a trip to the Clothes Show Live. Aged 14, she signed to Storm, the agency that discovered Kate Moss, and then appeared in teen magazines. Modelling, she said, helped her confidence grow, because 'I suddenly had to talk, there was no one else to do it for me'. Her TV debut came about by accident, when she arrived at the audition thinking it was just another model casting. Instead, she was hired to appear in the slightly head-scratching S Club TV. She and six other presenters (including actor Ben Barnes) stood in for the real S Club 7 in a Sunday morning kids' show for ITV, vaguely themed around the band. 'I spoke in a posh telephone voice, and I was so unnatural,' she reflected on those early efforts. 'I fixated on remembering lines rather than just speaking.' She then briefly stepped behind the scenes, doing a stint as a receptionist for a production company and then as a runner for an auction channel. A chance meeting with a producer, while working at a pub in Chelsea, helped her land some more presenting gigs on CBBC, before she was snapped up to host CITV's Saturday morning show Ministry of Mayhem, alongside Stephen Mulhern. This job, with all its ridiculous challenges (often including gross combinations of food and that kids' TV staple, 'gunge'), was a steep learning curve. If things went off-kilter, she and Mulhern would have to make them work. 'When you knocked out hours and hours of telly live and things went wrong left, right and centre but you just had to pull it together, it [was] just a really good training ground,' she told The Guardian. The chaotic onscreen atmosphere seemed to permeate behind the scenes. 'There were times when we went straight from the hotel bar to going live on air,' Willoughby recalled to the Daily Mail – having 'to drink anchovies in custard with some eight-year-old' didn't exactly help with hangovers. Around this time, she met Dan Baldwin, a producer on the show, who she married in 2007. They are parents to Harry, 15, Belle, 13, and Chester, 10, and have worked together throughout their marriage (Baldwin produced Celebrity Juice, the unruly, lewd game show that Willoughby appeared on for 12 years). When Ministry of Mayhem wound down in 2006, Willoughby got her call-up to ITV's major league when she was hired to present Dancing on Ice, her first primetime show. She was cast alongside Phillip Schofield, who had decades more experience, but the pair quickly built up a rapport. They got on so well, in fact, that when Fern Britton left the famous This Morning sofa in 2009, Schofield recommended that his new friend replace her. 'Holly was the only person I wanted to replace her,' he told The Sunday Times in 2019. 'And at the time, it was a tough sell. But I knew it would work.' The onscreen camaraderie of 'Holly and Phil' (daytime TV stardom quickly makes you mononymous) was an immediate hit with viewers. Willoughby brought a touch of her kids' TV anarchy to This Morning, often dissolving into laughter on air. What she might have lacked in journalistic rigour, she made up for with charm, empathy for guests and an easy rapport with Schofield. 'I'm just a person that likes asking questions and has a natural interest in other people's lives,' she summed up her presenting style. The pair weren't averse to the odd stunt designed to amp up their 'relatability', such as the notorious occasion when they arrived at the studio in their gladrags after winning a National Television Award in 2016, joking that they were worse for wear. The following year, she received a £200,000 pay rise that put her on an equal footing to Schofield. She later said that the disparity had been to do with their relative experience, rather than her gender: 'If there was a pay gap, it wasn't just because I was a woman [...] I think it was that Phil had been there for such a long time.' Hers became a name that's often affixed with terms like 'nation's sweetheart', a shorthand for a sort of middle England niceness. Brands figured out that allying themselves with this particular niceness could be lucrative. Willoughby's fashion collaboration with Marks & Spencer sold out speedily when it launched in 2018, and any items she wore on air (think printed midi dresses from upmarket but still accessible high street stores) would be quickly snapped up too. But more than a decade into Willoughby's stint on This Morning, the tide of public opinion started to turn. The show was met with backlash when she and Schofield presided over a 'Spin to Win' competition segment that offered viewers the chance to have their energy bills covered for four months. Critics branded it dystopian, a gamification of the cost of living crisis. Worse still was 'Queue-gate'. It was claimed that she and Schofield had jumped the line to see the late Elizabeth II lying in state in September 2022 ('Please know that we would never jump a queue,' came their response). When news of Schofield's affair with a younger colleague broke the following summer, the show was embroiled in a media storm. Reports alleging a 'toxic' work environment proliferated; ITV denied these claims, but the show's veneer of amiability had shattered. Willoughby, who'd taken pains to never say anything remotely controversial throughout her career, couldn't win in this scandal. She was both criticised for her past association with Schofield, and berated for not standing by him. Her much-publicised address to viewers following Schofield's departure didn't quite hit the right tone: her opening question, 'Firstly, are you OK?', was much mocked (including, later, by Schofield, during his strange comeback vehicle, Cast Away). Willoughby was already facing a tough year, then, when things took a horribly dark turn in October 2023. An undercover US police officer had spent less than 48 hours communicating with security guard Gavin Plumb, who was described as 'obsessed' with the star, in a chat room. He was so alarmed by Plumb's plot to kidnap, rape and kill Willoughby that he contacted UK police, who arrested the security guard. The presenter stepped down from her This Morning role just a few days later. 'I now feel I have to make this decision for me and my family,' she said. When Plumb went on trial in summer 2024, many of the disturbing messages shown to the jury were deemed 'too graphic to be published'. He was later found guilty and received a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years in prison. Willoughby chose not to make her victim impact statement public, but did release a short and powerful response to the verdict. 'As women, we should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes,' she said, praising the 'bravery' of Plumb's previous victims, without whom 'this conviction may not have been possible'. Willoughby inevitably retreated from the public eye during this appalling ordeal. For a time there was a question mark hanging over whether she'd return to her role on Dancing on Ice (she did, eventually, with her longtime friend Mulhern taking over from Schofield). As she later revealed in a January 2025 interview with The Sunday Times, her first in well over a year, quitting TV was never an option for her. 'I knew that I would come back,' she said. 'It was important for me to get back to normality for lots of reasons.' When your life is turned upside down in such an awful and public way, she noted, 'you have a decision to make. You either decide, right, I can take this on board and it can absolutely affect all aspects of my life. Or I can make a choice to go, let's focus on everything that's positive and good.' Her first major step forward comes in the form of Celebrity Bear Hunt, a high-concept contest which sees an eclectic array of famous people – think Boris Becker crawling through the undergrowth with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen – dropped into the Costa Rican jungle. Here, they must fend for themselves and complete tricky challenges… all while being 'hunted' by adventurer Bear Grylls. It's far enough removed from This Morning to be a fresh start, but this slightly chaotic-sounding set-up might also be a welcome throwback to Willoughby's kids' telly days; she's always been at her most endearing when she's able to go off-piste. The fact that the Netflix show will be watched around the world, not just in the UK, will probably be equal parts thrilling and terrifying for someone whose fame has, so far, been very much confined to home soil. As far as comebacks go, there are no half measures here. The symbolism of it being all about trudging through adversity, albeit of a very different kind, probably wasn't lost on Willoughby either, who describes herself as 'made of quite tough stuff'. Rather than being crushed by a traumatic experience that might have reasonably caused anyone to retreat, she's opted, in her words, 'to positively move forward'. That resilience might just help her to usher in the next chapter of her career.
