Holly Willoughby has spoken of her “tough year” as the former This Morning presenter opened up about her home life in a candid admission.

Holly Willoughby left This Morning in October 2023, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.

She told the Sunday Times’ Style magazine: “It’s been a tough one. There’s no way of sugar-coating it.”

Holly has since made a candid admission about her family after leaving their home to travel to Central America for her new Netflix series, Celebrity Bear Hunt, alongside Bear Grylls.

The 43-year-old opened up about leaving her three children with her husband Dan Baldwin.

“I always thought, if I disappeared and left, you know, the wheels would fall off the family, the kids wouldn’t end up going to school on time. [But] Dan coped brilliantly, did all that,” she told the publication. 

“The kids were fine. I really enjoyed it. I thought I was going to be really homesick, but no offence to my family. I absolutely wasn’t.”

But Holly did admit her time on This Morning had taken away some precious moments with her three children having missed school assemblies and doing the school run over the years.

She shared: “I’ve spent a long time not being able to take my kids to school and I know, the school run, every [other] parent, they’d be like, ‘Christ, you absolutely dodged a bullet there.

“But there have been so many assemblies I haven’t been able to go to, so many things I’ve missed.”

Holly shares two sons Harry, 15, Chester, 10 and daughter Belle, 13, with her husband and TV producer Dan.

Her eldest son is currently doing his GCSEs and is in his last year of school but the presenter admitted she felt she “missed out” on those moments.

“Without even realising it, I think I’ve missed that,” she commented.

Having spent some time away from work, Holly has resumed hosting duties on shows like Dancing on Ice, with her next venture being Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt.