Dermot O’Leary squirms as Alison Hammond confirms off-air confrontation: ‘We told each other what we don’t like’

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Alison Hammond has revealed she told Dermot O’Leary what she didn’t like about him as they became This Morning’s new presenting duo.

The pair appeared on Friday’s Lorraine when Alison, 46, admitted there were a few things which bothered her about Dermot, 48, and vice-versa.

‘We literally were thrown together, like an arranged marriage,’ recalled Alison. ‘It took about two months before we became comfortable.’

Dermot explained: ‘When you start a show and you start with someone they normally go, “Oh you need to meet so and so. This is the person we’re thinking about pairing you with.” You go out for lunch or you have a meeting. But this was literally like, “you’re on air in half an hour.”

‘When you’re co-presenting, it takes a while to get to know those nuances and those little beats – “I’m going to talk now or you’re going to talk now.”

‘You find out about each other’s sense of humour, what you like about each other, what you don’t like about each other and those things take about two months.’

Then Alison confirmed that actually there were a few things that got under each other’s skin – much to Dermot’s dismay.

‘But we told each other what we don’t like, we were so honest with each other and I think that’s why it worked,’ she said.

‘We had a few private chats – “I don’t like this about you; well I don’t like this when you do such and such.”

‘All really tiny small things but the fact we were honest and able to talk to each other, I think that’s why it’s worked.’

‘It isn’t like we didn’t like each other!’ Dermot insisted. ‘It was just, “I didn’t know you were going to do that and it threw me.”

‘Now I can talk to you like I talk to my wife,’ he added.

Alison cackled as she said the things about Dermot she wasn’t so keen on at the beginning, ‘now I love.’

Alison and Dermot replaced Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford – who now present This Morning during the school holidays – to take the reins on ITV daytime favourite every Friday and, unsurprisingly, they’ve been a resounding hit with viewers.

Their friendship goes way back to 20 years ago when Alison found fame on Big Brother, despite only appearing in the house for 10 days.

Dermot revealed earlier this week why he knew the Brummy Big Brother icon would one day be a huge star.

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.