Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield look solemn as they joins thousands visiting Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin for This Morning filming-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro

Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby joined thousands of mourners visiting the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II following her death.

The late British monarch died aged 96 on September 8 and she is now lying in state at London’s Westminster Hall before her funeral on Monday (September 19), with the public queuing for hours to pay their respects.

Among them were the This Morning co-stars, who looked solemn on Friday morning as they were spotted wearing all-black for the emotional occasion.

Holly wore a facemask for the visit and they both had lanyards on as they were led through.

An ITV source told Metro.co.uk that the presenters were there as credited members of the press, filming for Tuesday’s episode of This Morning.

Rather than queue up and pay their respects in the same way as members of the public, they were led to a press gallery for a separate viewing.

Friday’s episode was cancelled as ITV focuses on its rolling news coverage ahead of the Queen’s state funeral, as well as King Charles III’s visit to Wales.

Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were seen visiting Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin

The friends and co-stars cut sombre figures

Addressing viewers on Thursday, Holly said: ‘Tomorrow we’ll be off air as ITV news will have special coverage of King Charles’ visit to Wales. We’ll be back on Tuesday to reflect on Her Majesty’s funeral.’

Phil: added: ‘So there’s just one thing left to say: thank you, Ma’am.’

Earlier in the episode, the two presenters were joined by Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins, who was selected for the first recording of God Save The King by the BBC, and she reflected on a special memory of meeting the Queen.

She recalled: ‘When I was in my mid-20s I got invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace, and it was a small lunch and I was worried that, would my table manners up to Buckingham Palace standards?

Holly and Phil were filming ahead of next Tuesday’s episode of This Morning (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

‘And sure enough, they brought round a course that I didn’t really understand, where you had to take a piece of fruit, and there was a water bowl, and some gauze, and they came to me first.’

She added: ‘I was thinking, “Oh no, this is a disaster,” so I took a piece of fruit but I just held it in my hand because I didn’t really know what to do, and her majesty was sat across from me and I think one of her gifts was understanding how people were feeling, and being in tune with how people would be reacting, and she sort of sensed that.

‘In a very maternal way, sort of caught my eye and it was like a, “Follow me,” and she helped me in that situation and I was really grateful.’

Elsewhere, Katherine also opened up about recording the new national anthem.

‘It was really emotional,’ she shared, about the new recording which closed the extended World at One programme on BBC Radio 4 last Friday, with its first play being at 13:53pm.

Speaking about the recording, Katherine had previously said: ‘While my heart is heavy with grief, singing this today, for the first time is a huge honour and was sung with the belief that King Charles III’s reign will be happy and glorious!’

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