Sarah, Duchess of York ‘takes over’ This Morning

This Morning welcomed Sarah, Duchess of York as a guest editor and co-host today, alongside show regulars Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary. 

The Duchess – who enjoyed previous visits to the This Morning studio so much that she declared that she would like to do more with the team – was today calling the shots on the show which airs across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on ITV1 and in Scotland on STV.

As part of her guest editor role, Sarah, Duchess of York took charge of the live two-and-a-half-hour show – at times from the gallery and studio floor – to deliver a mix of items and topics close to her heart.

Kicking off the show, Sarah said:

“Hello and welcome to a special episode of This Morning, I’m Sarah the Duchess of York and I’ve appeared on this programme many times and, as an enormous fan of the show, I’ve always enjoyed myself here. Today though, I’m joining the family as co-host – brackets ‘fluff’ – alongside Alison and Dermot and as guest editor for the day. I’ve been working with the brilliant team behind the scenes to bring you some of the topics I’m most passionate about. I hope you enjoy today’s show, and all that’s left for me to say is ‘run the titles!'”

Despite initially claiming to be feeling ‘terrified’, Sarah, Duchess of York went through the running order, and had some fun with chef regular Marcus Bean by saying ‘Oh, you’re very good looking!’ before going on to give her opinions during the news review with good friend Gyles Brandreth to discuss everything from the roles of grandparents to AI.

Sarah and Dermot later hosted an item with Dr Sara to explain the importance of defibrillators before Alison and Sarah fronted a beauty item focussing on how to protect and repair your skin with expert Nadine Bagott. Sarah confessed, “My father died of melanoma, so this [wearing SPF] is very serious. Recently I’ve been talking about getting your screening done for breast cancer, we’ve just been talking about your heart and defibrillators and we must go and get our moles checked.”

Once the hosting trio were reunited, Sarah went on to say, “I’m having such a lovely time, but that’s because of you two!” 

Dancing into the next item, Sarah, Duchess of York joined in with the Spin to Win competition and secured £1,000 for a lucky viewer, and went on to speak with more viewers during her love and relationship phone-in that left her co-host and viewers smiling after some suggestions of making memories or getting some saucy underwear!

Sarah also confessed, “I love a love note in the pocket, I’m a big romantic, I used to do that maybe in the squash shoes.” During an item about dog rehoming, Sarah opened up about her personal experience taking on two corgis following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. She said, “Last year I found myself welcoming to the family two corgis in need of a home after the passing of Her Majesty The Queen… I have Mick and Sandy and five Norfolk terriers, so there are now seven [dogs] in total. Mick had his tail down to begin with and now a year later he’s only just beginning to really enjoy himself…”

Speaking to Cliff on his 65 year career and the release of his new album and book, Sarah said, “You really are as humble and as kind as you’ve always been, how do you do that?”

Cliff replied, “I always think you are a product of your family and when I first came into this business I was told ‘Make sure you treat well the people around you on your way up because you’re going to meet them on the way down’ and it stuck with me. It’s much easier to be nice.”

This Morning airs weekdays from 10 am on ITV1, ITVX, STV and the STV Player