Holly Willoughby has made a TV return after ordeal (Image: PA)
Holly Willoughby candidly revealed her reasons for making a much-anticipated return to television after an 18-month ordeal.
The 43-year-old took a step back from the limelight after it was revealed security guard Gavin Plumb had planned to kidnap and kill her.
Plumb, 37, was jailed for 16 years in July last year, having been arrested in 2023.
returned to the spotlight in September, when she appeared at the National Television Awards. She was seen on screens over Christmas in You Bet! with Stephen Mulhern.
She is currently presenting Dancing on Ice alongside the 47-year-old on ITV, reports .
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Holly Willoughby (Image: Tom Dymond/Netflix)
But it was Celebrity Bear Hunt – a high-intensity show where 12 celebrities attempt to evade survivalist Bear Grylls – that marked Holly’s steps to a TV comeback. The show, which releases today (February 5), was filmed in Costa Rica last year.
Speaking to the Sunday Times , Holly says her comeback was always going to happen, and that it was “important for me to get back to normality”. And Holly has now revealed what made her want to make the return.
Holly stated: “I’d be an idiot if I said no. [Money’s] not the reason I make a decision.
“I’m not saying, how much are they going to pay me for this, and how much are they going to pay me for that? But by definition my work is a business. I’m not going to shy away from saying that.”
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Holly will be appearing on Celebrity Bear Hunt with Bear Grylls (Image: undefined)
Holly candidly expressed her views on the gender disparity in perceptions of success, stating: “I think, sometimes, when women earn money people see it as a greedy, ambitious thing, but when men earn money? ‘Oh, he’s incredible, I want to be like him! ‘ I don’t have any shame in saying it’s my business, it’s my work. It’s also all I have known. It’s what I do.”
She shared her enthusiasm for the new show after Bear Grylls explained it to her, saying she was “really excited” and saw it as an opportunity to try “something completely new”.
She added: “And, well, if you’re going to go on an adventure, go with Bear Grylls.”
The upcoming series Celebrity Bear Hunt will thrust celebrities like Spice Girls icon Mel B, tennis great Boris Becker, Inbetweeners actor Joe Thomas, and Ted Lasso’s Kola Bokinni into the wilds of the Costa Rican jungle.
Stephen Mulhern and Holly Willoughby present Dancing on Ice (Image: ITV)
They will become the hunted as Bear seeks to track them down, with those caught facing potential elimination.
Bear, aged 50 and a former SAS serviceman, took to social media to hail the programme as “the most intense” he has ever created. His illustrious career in survival television began with rn Survivor in 2006.
Notably, he conquered Mount Everest in Nepal at just 23, a mere 13 months after surviving a harrowing parachuting mishap in Kenya where his parachute failed to deploy, resulting in a 16,000ft plunge.
Celebrity Bear Hunt releases on today.