Holly Willoughby watched 'This Morning' every day on her maternity leave.

Holly Willoughby with This Morning co-star Phillip Schofield

Holly Willoughby with This Morning co-star Phillip Schofield

The blonde beauty took a year off from the ITV breakfast show to care for her now 11-month-old son Chester and confessed that "a lovely part" of her day was settling down in front of the television and feeding Chester while watching her co-star Phillip Schofield.

Speaking on her first day back at work on the daytime show today (01.09.15), Holly said: "I was watching 'This Morning' when I was off (for the) 11am feed! Right now you'd be gathering your feeding pillow around you, you'd be getting yourself settled, you'd have the remote, you'd have some water, and a couple of biscuits if I'm honest! And you'd get ready to watch 'This Morning'. It was a lovely part of my day."

The 34-year-old presenter - who was temporarily replaced by Amanda Holden - is happy she decided to take a full year off to spend time with her newborn and her other kids, Harry, six, and four-year-old Belle, because she had an "incredible" time with them.

Discussing her paternity leave, Holly - who is married to Dan Baldwin - said: "It's been incredible, I'm really glad I did it because it was a big decision for me to leave anywhere for a whole year and come back. It's been the quickest year of my life and I mean Chester is going to be one in a couple of weeks so where did that go? It was really important for me and the family to spend time (together). Belle starts school tomorrow, so it's been lovely."

Holly also revealed her older children Harry and Belle have been great with their baby brother and help her look after little Chester.

She explained: "Harry and Belle have sort of grown up a bit. They know I've got Chester so I've got my hands full ... Belle's really good at getting in the car on her own, putting her own seat belt on and she's a little bit more self sufficient. You know she's had to grow up a little bit which is really nice."