Holly Willoughby reached out to her old friend Fearne Cotton on Tuesday – after her paedophile ex Ian Watkins was killed in jail.
Podcaster Fearne, 44, and Ian dated briefly in the early 2000s before his horrific crimes were revealed. She has never publicly commented on her involvement with him.
Last weekend former Lostprophets singer Ian was murdered behind bars where he was serving 29 years for a string of child sex offences.
The former frontman’s throat was reportedly cut by a fellow inmate after prisoners came out of their cells in the morning.
A few days after his death Fearne took to Instagram with a reflective video where she spoke about shame and other topics.
She said: ‘Here are four things that I learned this week. The first one was from the Happy Place podcast where I spoke to Charlie Mackesy who talked a lot about shame which I greatly appreciated.
Holly Willoughby reached out to her old friend Fearne Cotton on Tuesday – after her paedophile ex Ian Watkins was killed in jail (Ian and Fearne seen in 2004)
A few days after his death Fearne took to Instagram with a reflective video where she spoke about shame
Her close pal Holly commented underneath saying: ‘Love you cotton chops’
‘And the one reminder that I had from that episode was that so many of us feel shame but we assume it’s just us because that is what shame does. It wants you to believe that it’s just you but it’s not…’
She penned in the caption of her post: ‘Four life lessons from this week. I’m not sleeping well. My brain is a bit wobbly at the moment but I’m grasping the lessons life is chucking my way.
‘Which of these interests you the most or rings true?’
Her close pal Holly commented underneath saying: ‘Love you cotton chops.’
Holly and Fearne, who met as teenagers, reconnected last year after previously drifting apart after they stopped filming Celebrity Juice together in 2018.
Holly and Fearne, who appeared as team captains on the show, were thought to have become less following the show after taking different paths and ‘failed to check in on each other’.
But last year they were thought to have bonded again over a new shared wellness-led and holistic approach to life.
On Saturday, Ian’s throat was reportedly cut by a fellow inmate after prisoners came out of their cells this morning.
Emergency services rushed to Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire but the sex offender’s life could not be saved.
The 48-year-old had been sentenced to nearly three decades behind bars for a series of child sex offences, which included the attempted rape of a fan’s baby daughter.
The former rock singer is one of the highest-profile prisoners to be killed in a British prison.
Podcaster Fearne, 44, and Ian dated briefly in the early 2000s before his horrific crimes were revealed. She has never publicly commented on her involvement with him
Holly and Fearne, who met as teenagers, reconnected last year after previously drifting apart after they stopped filming Celebrity Juice together in 2018 (seen in 2016 together)
The former rock singer is one of the highest profile prisoners to be killed in a British prison
Watkins is said to have died from blood loss after being slashed to the jugular.
Two men, aged 25 and 43, were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of his murder.
In 2013, Watkins was given 14- and 15-year consecutive prison terms for engaging in sexual activity with a child and the attempted rape of an 11-month-old baby.
He was also convicted of 11 other offences at Cardiff Crown Court – with those sentences running alongside his 29-year term.
Two of his co-defendants known as Mother A and Mother B – the parents of children he assaulted – were also incarcerated for 14 and 17 years respectively.
The depraved singer attempted to rape a fan’s baby girl, while he also encouraged another to abuse her own child in a webcam chat.
During the trial, it was heard how a woman had proposed to him the offer of a ‘summer of child porn’, to which he replied: ‘Hell yes, baby.’
Representing Woman B, Christine Laing QC also told the court that Watkins told her client: ‘You and your daughter now belong to me.’
It is also understood the jailed sex offender was so ‘tech savvy’ his collection of child abuse footage and photos amounted to 27 terabytes of data.
The scale of the collection dwarfed South Wales Police’s own data storage – and was five times bigger than the force’s which had 2,862 officers and 1,631 support staff at the time.
One terabyte could hold as much as 472 hours of broadcast quality footage or around 150 hours of HD video.
Eventually, experts from the UK government’s intelligence headquarters, the GCHQ were brought in to crack the password on the encrypted files on his computer.
The paedophile vehemently denied the claims lodged against him before switching his plea to guilty at the last second.
In mitigation, his defence argued his use of crack cocaine and crystal meth meant he could not remember his ‘prolific abuse’.
