Alison Hammond reveals she almost turned down This Morning job

This Morning favourite Alison Hammond finally stepped up to host the Friday editions of the show full-time recently, after being involved in the show in a smaller capacity for years.

But it turns out that she was initially hesitant to take on the regular job, explaining, in typically brilliant Alison Hammond fashion, that she wasn't sure she could commit to every Friday.

"I was like, 'No, I'm not doing that. It's massive,'" the star told The Sun. "I'd done Fridays before with Rylan [Clark-Neal], but this was committing to every week. I kept thinking, 'What if I don't want to do that Friday?'

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"The whole time at This Morning I could say yes or no and I could get out of it, but now it's 'Fridays are your day'. It was daunting.

"It's three hours – I struggle to keep my legs closed for that long. I'm a bigger woman and it's hard as I have fat legs, so I like relaxing with my legs open."

Her Fridays with Dermot O'Leary got off to a bit of a rough start, sadly, as the pandemic meant that the pair didn't really get as much time to work on their rapport and chemistry together as presenters normally have.

"Because of COVID, there were no screen tests. No lunch. Nothing," she explained.

alison hammond and dermot o'leary on this morning

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"We literally did a Zoom and we couldn't even get that right. I was waiting for half an hour and he wasn't there and he was waiting on a different Zoom! Then we spoke on the phone briefly and it was just, 'OK, I'll see you on Friday then.'"

Thankfully she says they've been able to work out their little issues – like Dermot sitting too close to her and stealing her lines – and are getting along swimmingly.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.