This Morning host Holly Willoughby struggled through an interview with Dancing On Ice winner Jake Quickenden as she was unable to stop coughing.
The TV presenter was forced to apologise when she was suddenly struck with a coughing fit in the middle of the chat with Quickenden and his dance partner Vanessa Bauer on the ITV daytime programme.
However, it was taken in good spirits as her co-host Phillip Schofield jokingly chastised her: “Stop it now, you’re just pulling focus!”
He added: “You attention-seeker, it’s not all about you.”
Laughing and coughing simultaneously, Willoughby uttered: “Sorry, I’ve got that annoying thing…
“You know when you get it and you can’t not cough?”
Quickenden suggested that she might be affected by his aftershave, to which Willoughby quipped: “It might be.”
As she tried to speak again, her voice cracked and she and Schofield burst out laughing.
“Oh God, this is awful,” she said.
Viewers of the ITV programme found the interruption amusing.
One compared Willoughby to Theresa May, who last year was struck by a bout of coughing during a keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
Holly having a Prime Minister May moment #ThisMorning
— Natasha ✨ (@Londongirl75) March 12, 2018
“Holly having a Prime Minister May moment #ThisMorning,” they tweeted.
This is the most funniest #DancingOnIce interview ever with Holly continually coughing #ThisMorning #Jake2018DOIchampion
— Christopher Wood (@ChrisJW1987) March 12, 2018
Another wrote on Twitter: “This is the most funniest #DancingOnIce interview ever with Holly continually coughing #ThisMorning #Jake2018DOIchampion.”
Does someone wanna grab @hollywills a couple of Strepsils… 😂😂😂 #ThisMorning
— Gibby 2.0 (@GibbyBlogger) March 12, 2018
“Does someone wanna grab @hollywills a couple of Strepsils,” another joked, using several crying-laughing emojis.
Quickenden told Willoughby and Schofield, who also present Dancing On Ice, that he hurt himself more celebrating his win on Sunday night than he did for the entirety of the series.
The former X Factor star said that he was lifted in the air by his fellow former competitor Kem Cetinay at the post-show party, which has now left him injured.
He said: “My knee is massive, so I don’t know what I’ve done there. My back is hurting from doing the Worm!”
He added: “Everybody let their hair down (last night) – everyone boiled over, it was an amazing experience.”
Quickenden and skater Bauer beat actress Brooke Vincent, who came second, and rugby player Max Evans, who was third, in the Dancing On Ice finale.