Josie Gibson furiously defends Olivia Attwood over This Morning backlash

Josie Gibson has hit back at trolls in defence of Olivia Attwood after she became the victim of cruel jibes following her new presenting role on This Morning. Fans of the ITV daytime TV show have even threatened to boycott the show reportedly due to her rise to fame from Love Island, in 2017.

The 34 year old TV personality, who has since gone on to be a panellist on Loose Women and host her own podcast, had appeared on the third series of the reality TV show. But Olivia is not the first person to have a reality TV background, so too has Josie Gibson, Alison Hammond and Rylan Clark.

Both women were on Big Brother and Rylan shot to fame from X Factor. So it's perhaps understandable why Josie, 40, has decided to break her silence. It comes after it was announced that Olivia had landed yet another huge TV job.

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In an interview with The Sun, the mum of one who appeared on Big Brother in 2010, said: "Oh my God she’s brilliant. It’s brilliant she gets to do this and I think she’s really good. Yeah, really good. Honestly, you get some backlash like that in this industry and I really don’t know why people do it."

She added: "I’ll never understand why people do it, you know. To me, I’ve always loved to see people do well and I genuinely love it. I love it when people succeed and I want to bring everybody up and make sure everybody has a go on the horses, do you know what I mean? "

While on This Morning to discuss her new TV show The Price of Perfection in June, Olivia revealed her news to hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shepherd.

Engineering the conversation, Ben told the former Love Island star "We’ve got some big news about This Morning and you in the summer."

In response Olivia said: "I have some news yes, it’s very exciting. I’ll be joining you guys on the hosting team on the other side of the sofa."

The TV duo then gestured for Olivia to sit on their side of the sofa to "feel what it's like."

Getting up to switch her seat, the newbie said: "This is even more surreal."

Complimenting the new addition to the presenting team, Cat said: "We look amazing together." And this prompted Olivia to ask Cat: "Shall we do a show together?"

The Loose Women panellist add more detail to her announcement as she said: "So it’s a couple of shows, I’m very excited, it’s a huge honour. I’ve grown up watching this show, and being part of the ITV presenting team with Loose Women has been a great experience so this just feels like a very natural progression."

Olivia was brought in to replace Ben and Cat when they take time off for their six week holiday.

But her new role divided fans. One person wrote: "So Attwood is going to be co-hosting #ThisMorning over the summer. FFS like we don’t get enough of her on #Loosewomen, surprised they haven’t asked that talentless Sam Thompson to step in as well!"

Another added: "How many more viewers do they want to lose? Attwood joining the team is really poor decision."

A third said: "Just when you think the presenters can’t get any worse they decide to take on Olivia Attwood."

Meanwhile a fourth penned: "Well done … That’s another step downhill for this show! I wonder who else will be hosting over the summer?"

But not everyone thought her inclusion was a bad idea. One fan of the ITV show wrote: "It’s great that Olivia Attwood will be a presenter on This Morning, she’ll be fantastic."

And a second said: "Love Olivia, will definitely be tuning in."

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