Now Kate Garraway steals Fiona Phillips' dress as she vies for her place on the GMTV sofa

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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She is determined that the empty space on GMTV's sofa should be hers.

So perhaps Kate Garraway wanted to show how seamlessly she could fill Fiona Phillips' shoes.

The ambitious presenter attended the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards on Monday night wearing the very same frock that her rival Fiona Phillips modelled in her first interview since her resignation.

The decision could be seen as a deliberate attempt by Miss Garraway to draw comparisons between herself and Miss Phillips who recently publicised the ongoing rivalry between the two.

Seeing double: GMTV presenter Kate Garraway is vying for Fiona Phillips' place on the sofa and turned up at the TV Quick awards in her rival's Reiss dress

The dress, which costs £159 from Reiss, flattered the curvaceous figures of both blondes and emphasised their similarity in looks as well as style.

A source from the show said: 'A GMTV stylist tipped Kate off about the dress. It seems that he gave the same advice to Fiona without thinking they would both go out and buy it.

'Obviously both Fiona and Kate have a lot in common, including good taste. It really is just a coincidence.'

When Miss Philips resigned from her job of 12 years as main anchor on GMTV last month, her younger colleague Miss Garraway, 41, was the obvious choice to take over.

'Opening of an envelope': Fiona slammed Kate's tendency to court publicity

'Opening of an envelope': Fiona slammed Kate's tendency to court publicity

But last week Miss Phillips, 47, spoke out against her possible successor. She said: 'She is probably quite pleased that I am going, I have the top job. She'd be lying if she said she didn't want it.'

The mother of two, who earns £600,000 a year, claimed that Miss Garraway had not been in touch since she announced her imminent departure in December.

Leaving: Fiona is leaving GMTV mid-way through her £1.5million contract

Leaving: Fiona is leaving GMTV mid-way through her £1.5million contract

She commented: 'It doesn't annoy me that I haven't heard from her. Nor am I basing any decisions on how she feels.'

But the presenter criticised Miss Garraway's tendency to grab the headlines and court publicity.

She added: 'People handle things in different ways. I have never gone to the opening of an envelope. It gets headlines and your picture in the paper.

'It is not how I operate but it doesn't make me a good person and her a bad one.'

Miss Phillips' husband Martin Frizell is editor of GMTV and she has already dropped her days from five days a week to four, after briefly working only three days a week.

She blamed her decision to leave on the daily 4am starts to get on air for the breakfast show and said juggling her sons, Nathaniel, nine and Mackenzie, six, as well as her elderly father and her marriage had become too much.

She will leave the show half way through her £1.5million contract.

Meanwhile Kate Garraway, who currently earns £400,000 a year, is married to former spin doctor Derek Draper and has a two-year-old daughter Darcey.

Garraway, who took part in last year's Strictly Come Dancing, was not warned by her colleague that she was leaving.

Miss Garraway, 41, has been at GMTV for eight years.

Christine Bleakley from the One Show has been named as a possible replacement for Miss Phillips along with Ulrika Jonsson and BBC Breakfast presenter Kate Silverton.


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