'The show must go on': Watch moment This Morning addressed Holly Willoughby quitting in first show after star's exit

A heartwarming tribute to Holly Willoughby was issued at the start of This Morning on Wednesday (October 11).

It comes after the presenter announced her plans to leave the ITV programme via an Instagram post. She said the decision was made "for me and my family" on Tuesday after a 36-year-old man was questioned by detectives over an alleged plot to kidnap her.

The intro to the show on Wednesday morning displayed text for the theme of Holly's departure, with the words 'end of an era', 'family comes first', 'we'll miss you!', and 'goodbye Holly'. The show was kicked off with messages of "love" to Holly as the presenters gave their heartfelt goodbyes.

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Rochelle Humes started the show by saying: "We want to start by sending our love, best wishes and respect to our Holly." While Craig Doyle added: "Last night Holly made what we know will have been a heartbreaking decision to leave This Morning after 14 years."

Humes added: "Holly really loves her job here...but recent events, especially in the past week, have been hard to deal with and she's quite rightly putting her family first." Doyle continued: "On behalf of everyone here in front and behind the camera, we just loved working with Holly, she made coming to work so much fun, we're really sad and we're going to miss her."

Humes then said: "Holly said she is incredibly proud of what she's achieved on this show and so are we. She will forever be one of us" Doyle added: "But as Holly Willoughby knows only too well - the show must go on."

Thousands of people shared similar heartwarming messages on