Fiona Phillips says she was paid less than GMTV co-host Eamonn Holmes

‘Monetarily I was well adrift of my onscreen partner, who also had ‘perks’ that I clearly wasn’t deemed worthy of’

The broadcaster, dubbed ‘queen of breakfast TV’, left the show in 2008 after 12 years as its main presenter (Getty)

Fiona Phillips has said she was paid less than her GMTV co-host Eamonn Holmes – despite being dubbed the “queen of breakfast TV”.

Writing in her Daily Mirror column, the former breakfast show anchor said that she was “a relative pauper in relation to my on-screen king, Eamonn Holmes”.

Phillips, 57, added: “Monetarily I was well adrift of my onscreen partner, who also had ‘perks’ that I clearly wasn’t deemed worthy of.”

The mother-of-two also said that her pregnancy was deemed a “nuisance” and “an inconvenience” by TV bosses.

“I even had to fight for maternity pay after being told by bosses, when I broke it to them that I was pregnant, that ‘viewers don’t like seeing pregnant women on TV, especially early in the morning’,” she wrote.

She said she was also told “you’ll have to go once it shows too much”, but stayed until she was eight months pregnant by opting for a “slimming” wardrobe.

Last year, Holmes, whose early-morning credits also include Sunrise and a stint returning to the breakfast sofa on Good Morning Britain, was named the best breakfast show host of all time.

PA