Meet Storm Huntley, the star tipped to replace Holly Willoughby on This Morning with a VERY famous Hollywood pal | The Sun

SHE'S a self-described ‘babe in a booth’ whose job was to answer viewers' calls on daytime TV.

But little-known Channel 5 starlet Storm Huntley is being tipped as Holly Willoughby’s replacement on This Morning.

Bookies have given her odds of 2-1 to take over from Holly in a move that could see the show’s first all-female presenting team with Alison Hammond.

If she lands the gig Storm, 36, will leapfrog bigger names like Josie Gibson, Rochelle Humes and Kate Lawler – after starting her career answering phones on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff in 2015.

Matthew Wright’s long-running programme was taken over by Jeremy Vine and Storm was this year given her own hour-long slot.

In the biggest hint yet that Storm is in the running for This Morning, Jeremy wrote on X: “Note to self: first thing Monday morning, beg @StormHuntley to stay.”

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Storm might not be as recognisable as other This Morning frontrunners, but she and Holly share a lot in common.

Both are bubbly, down-to-earth mums who once entertained on kids' shows and have husbands who are also in showbusiness.

Holly’s other half Dan Baldwin is a TV producer while Storm’s partner Kerr Okan is the frontman for Scots band The LaFontaines.

While Holly regularly rubs shoulders with other celebrities, Storm is pals with a very famous A lister.

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She and Batman star Robert Pattinson have been friends since meeting at school and Jeremy Vine posted a picture of the pair together in 2018.

Shown off skills

Brand and culture expert Nick Ede said Storm would be an unusual choice for the morning magazine show but said she had proved her mettle on live television.

He said: “Storm has built up quite a loyal fan base.

“From being a woman who takes the phone calls she’s earned her stripes when it comes to broadcasting, doing hundreds of hours of live TV.

“One of the most important things for a This Morning presenter is the ability to go from serious items to the fun and trivial or even a segment about Christmas gifting and Storm has shown she can handle most situations.

“It would be quite a left-field decision by ITV because we don’t know much about Storm. We don’t embrace her fashion or lifestyle or see her as a brand ambassador but she’s quite relatable and has shown she can host on her own.”

Holly, 42, quit earlier this month after 14 years on This Morning following a year of hell.

In a shock statement, the mother-of-three said she had made the decision for herself and her family.

It follows months of torment for the star after she and Philip Schofield were blasted for jumping the queue to see Her Majesty lying-in-state last year before he quit this May over an affair with a young employee.

Poisoned chalice?

Storm’s cheeky, chatty style is not dissimilar to Holly, but PR expert Mark Borkowski said whoever gets the job faces difficult comparisons.

He said: “On one level it’s a huge opportunity for the right person, but at the same time, it’s a poisoned chalice because there will be comparisons and contrasts with Holly.

“Nobody can blame Holly for leaving when you think about what she’s been through.

“It’s a very, very difficult job and ITV will be looking very carefully at who they are going to choose. This could be one of many examples of people throwing names into the ring to see how the public and media react.

“This Morning’s future will be dependent on who the new anchors are. When Angus Deayton lost his job on Have I Got News For You? some people said it was the death of the show, but it now has guest anchors and is still going all these years later.

“This Morning has a great magazine format and is indelibly linked to the heart of heartland of midmorning TV.”

William Hill says Storm is 2-1 to get one of the biggest jobs on TV, with Alison Hammond at even-money, Josie Gibson at 4-1 and Rochelle at 7-1.

Spokesman Lee Phelps said: “There's certainly a storm brewing in the betting with Storm a notable market mover in recent days.”

Kids' TV start

Like Holly, who first shot to fame on CITV’s Ministry of Madness, Storm got her face known on kids' TV, presenting the seasonal CBeebies show Down on the Farm.

Storm and her family lived in both Bishopbriggs, on the outskirts of Glasgow, and London, where she went to high school with Twilight star Robert Pattinson.

She said: "Rob and I were good friends all through high school, we got on really well and started school at the same time – he was the year above me – in London.

"Rob's dad said that on our first day I was apparently walking around the carpark balancing on a kerb stone. As I had no friends to talk to, he pulled up and said to Rob, 'Oh, there's a friend for you.'"

She later found work as a researcher with BBC Scotland before taking a short meteorology course to present the weather.

Her first UK job came when she moved to London and introduced callers to host Matthew Wright, then Jeremy Vine.

She was given longer slots on the show before finally getting her own segment earlier this year, writing on Instagram: “Good things come to those who wait…From ‘Babe in the Booth’ to the host 8 years later.”

In October 2020 Huntley announced her engagement to Kerr Okan, lead singer of the rock band The LaFontaines.

The couple married in September 2021 on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland with fellow TV presenter Carol Smillie officiating the ceremony.

They announced Storm was pregnant shortly after with a funny Instagram post showing a bun in the oven.

After the union, she told viewers she would be dropping her surname to use just Storm.

She was given the name because she was born during a violent storm and her mum was reading a book called Sparrow Falls at the time in which the main character was called Storm.

She said she considered different careers before landing on TV.

She said: “I went from one extreme to the other. I thought 'Oh, I'll be a doctor' if I watched ER, 'I'll be a lawyer' if I watched Ally McBeal and then, 'I think I'll be an architect.'

“ I bounced about and ended up doing economics at Glasgow Uni, which was what my dad did. I started in Subcity Radio and I decided that a career in media was what I was after.

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“ I helped set up a radio station In London, because my parents live half the time down there, and I ended up staying there to do a postgraduate course in Broadcast Journalism. I was ping-ponged about career-wise, it wasn't linear at all. No master plan.”

She might not have had a plan, but things appear to have worked out quite nicely for Storm.

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