Alison Hammond leaves co-stars in hysterics with "genius" Holly Willoughby joke as she returns to This Morning

Alison Hammond might have stepped away from This Morning under frightening circumstances last week, but her return to the programme today left her co-stars in stitches. During her first live link, the host appeared to make a cheeky reference to an infamous line by former colleague Holly Willoughby.

After she and co-star Dermot O'Leary told Lorraine Kelly what to expect from today's episode, Alison said: "Guys... are you OK? I hope you are."

The line is presumably a nod to Holly's memorable introductory monologue back in 2023 following the departure of Phillip Schofield, when she said: "Firstly, are you OK? I hope so."

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Alison's comment today left both Lorraine and Dermot in hysterics, with Lorraine saying: "Genius. Absolute genius."

When Lorraine then attempted to carry on with her show, she said between giggles: "I don't how to follow that."

In last Friday's episode of This Morning, Alison abruptly walked off-set mid-interview clutching her chest, later posting from a hospital bed.

Today, she explained that she experienced a panic attack that she thought was a heart attack.

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"I couldn't catch my breath and I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack," she said. "I'm so glad I'm here. I feel so grateful. I feel so thankful to God, to everything in life."

She added: "It was the first time I've ever experienced anything like that. Secondly it was live on TV so I thought, oh my gosh, my son might be watching.

"So I just ran. I ran off TV. I would never do that normally but I just couldn't catch my breath."

The star, who earlier this week won the Honorary Gay Award at the Attitude Awards, said she contemplated not returning to the show this week.

"I'll be honest with you, I was anxious about coming back," she said. "But I thought, if I don't come back today, I probably wouldn't come back... because then I would have made a thing that it's This Morning that's causing the panic.

"But it can happen anywhere. It comes in ebbs and flows."

This Morning airs on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.

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Shaun is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, with over a decade of experience reporting on all things pop culture. He has written for outlets including Metro, Attitude, Huffington Post, The Mirror, Yahoo!, Pink News and Express Online, specialising in TV, movies, soaps, music and LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning scriptwriter, having written episodes of the soap Hollyoaks, the official Steps musical Here & Now and multiple Offie Award-nominated plays. He studied English Literature and Drama at the University of East Anglia, and will happily talk at length about Desperate Housewives to anyone who'll listen.