{"id":390643,"date":"2026-03-18T02:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/390643\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T02:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:03:12","slug":"holly-willoughbys-secret-feud-with-tv-comedian-matt-richardson-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/390643\/","title":{"rendered":"Holly Willoughby’s secret ‘feud’ with TV comedian Matt Richardson revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

TV comic Matt Richardson has revealed his secret feud with Holly Willoughby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former Xtra Factor presenter, 34, recalled how a joke he made back in 2014 when he was doing a run-through for a new panel show called Reality Bites sparked tension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt claimed Holly took offence with a gag he made about her close friend Nicole Appleton<\/a>. He added years later when he took part in the 2021 series of Dancing On Ice<\/a> they ‘barely spoke’.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said in a TikTok<\/a> video: ‘Holly Willoughby doesn\u2019t like me, I don\u2019t think. Many years ago, we are talking 2014, I did a run-through in an office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘They were developing a new panel show called Reality Bites and I was maybe going to be a team captain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘When they were first developing it, you do run throughs of the show. So we are doing run throughs and one of the people on it was Nicole Appleton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TV <\/p>\n

TV comic Matt Richardson has revealed his secret feud with Holly Willoughby<\/p>\n

‘I had met Nicole because she was a guest judge on The X Factor when we went to judges\u2019 houses with Sinitta, Shane Filan.<\/p>\n

‘In this panel setting, the host Stephen Mulhern asked her, “Why were there three of you on that?”,<\/p>\n

And I said: “Because the three of those in that room add up to one celebrity.” It got a laugh in the room, it was clearly a joke, whatever.<\/p>\n

‘I then became quite friendly with Nicole. We had a few mutual friends, we used to go out drinking. I\u2019ve been to her house for a party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We really got on for the next few years. I\u2019d seen her loads and she was like, “That\u2019s really funny”.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt then claimed three or four years later, Holly confronted him over the joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicole, a former member of the pop group All Saints, is a key part of Holly’s inner circle of famous friends, which also includes Emma Bunton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went on: ‘Holly comes up to me at something and she\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019ve got a problem with you.<\/p>\n

‘She was in the room at the run-through because her husband\u2019s company were making it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The former Xtra Factor presenter, 34, recalled how a joke he made back in 2014 when he was doing a run-through for a new panel show called Reality Bites sparked tension<\/p>\n

\"Nicole, <\/p>\n

Nicole, a former member of the pop group All Saints, is a key part of Holly’s inner circle of famous friends, which also includes Emma Bunton<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"Fans <\/p>\n

Fans defended Holly in the comment section as they wrote: ‘Why are people acting like this makes her a bad person? She thought she was defending her friend’<\/p>\n

She was like, “You made a joke about Nicole and it was f***ing unacceptable. How dare you?” I was like, One, it was a joke. Nicole was stood next to me and I went, “Did it offend you?” And she said, “No it was fine, I got it, it\u2019s not a problem”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Holly goes, “Yeah, but still\u2026” and had a real go at me, which was really weird. I was being told off by Holly Willoughby in the middle of this members club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I didn\u2019t really see her again until I did Dancing on Ice when we barely spoke because it was Covid and I was training.<\/p>\n

‘She might still think I\u2019m a t**t, but I don\u2019t know.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans defended Holly in the comment section as they wrote: ‘Why are people acting like this makes her a bad person? She thought she was defending her friend. She may have been mistaken but that doesn\u2019t make you a bad person’;<\/p>\n

‘Tbh I\u2019m with Holly – like cool that Nicole was fine with it, but it\u2019s a pretty harsh joke to make about someone you\u2019re not close friends with at that time. Not exactly a big offence but still’;<\/p>\n

‘It was rude!!! Nicole should have confirmed it was rude!!’\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daily Mail has contacted Holly’s representatives for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt co-presented The Xtra Factor in 2013 with Caroline Flack before he was replaced by Olly Murs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has also starred on Dancing on Ice, Celebrity Haunted Mansion, and The Hangover Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TV comic Matt Richardson has revealed his secret feud with Holly Willoughby. The former Xtra Factor presenter, 34,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[118,86233,18,117,13131,19,17,169573,178425,1150,438],"class_list":{"0":"post-390643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-dancing-on-ice","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-holly-willoughby","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-nicole-appleton","16":"tag-sinitta","17":"tag-tiktok","18":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116247724558360772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}