Five of Holly Willoughby’s closest pals got together this weekend, and the gushing TV star has been talking about how important their friendship is.
19:42, 19 Apr 2026Updated 19:43, 19 Apr 2026

Emma Bunton, Christine Lampard, Shiarra Bell. singer Nicole Appleton their friend Nikki and Holly Willoughby all went for lunch (Image: hollywilloughby/Instagram)
Holly Willoughby can’t get enough of her Sex And The City-style friendship group as she grabbed lunch with her closest pals. The TV star caught up with ‘her girls’ Emma Bunton and Christine Lampard as the 45-year-old got the gang together.
Shiarra Bell, Nikki and singer Nicole Appleton made up the happy half-dozen as Holly’s group giggled away with the former This Morning presenter looking stylish in a burgundy shirt.
Posting a snap of the six of them together, Holly wrote “As Carrie Bradshaw said… They say nothing lasts forever; dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style.. Love my girls…”
Nicole is reportedly Holly’s number one. They are said to have been friends for many years and often feature on each other’s Instagram pages enjoying boozy brunches and nights out with their girl gang.

Fans were wondering is she is still close to long-term friend Fearne Cotton (Image: Instagram)
Fans were wondering if Feane Cotton is still in her inner circle. The pair started out in TV together when they were just 17 and appeared on Celebrity Juice, before Ferne went on to present children’s shows for GMTV, CITV, and CBBC. The pair even worked on their own show together, Holly and Fearne Go Dating.
Although they don’t work together any more, Holly spoke to the Daily Mail about their friendship. She said: “Fearne and I have that sort of friendship where we’re always so busy that when we see each other, it’s great and we can pick up where we left off. There is no guilt, no resentment.”
The iconic HBO show Sex And The City, which has millions of fans worldwide, centred around the lives of dynamic New Yorkers Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Miranda Hobbes and Samantha Jones.

The friends had a fabulous lunch! (Image: hollywilloughby/Instagram)
But the programme has been plagued by the bitter fallout between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall, who played Carrie and Samantha respectively. A simmering tension between the leading ladies has been well documented over the years, but following the tragic death of Kim’s beloved brother Chris in 2018 rumours of a long-running feud blew up in spectacular style.
In a shocking statement Kim accused Sarah Jessica of being a ‘hypocrite’ when she reached out after Kim’s brother’s death, adding that the actresses were “never friends”.
As Sarah Jessica reached out publicly to offer support to her former co-star’s grieving family by commenting on Kim’s Instagram post, the actress did not hold back as she blasted the gesture as ‘a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now.”
Meanwhile, SJP said she was hurt by Kim’s comments, claiming that’s ‘not how she remembers’ their time on set. Ructions between the actresses were said to have been bubbling under from the very beginning of their working relationship in Sex and the City.
Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, who played Miranda Hobbes and Charlotte York, are said to have formed an alliance with Sarah Jessica, ‘deliberately excluding’ Kim from their clique, who in turn allegedly became increasingly isolated on set.
There were even rumours the trio refused to speak to Kim outside of what was written on their scripts, even on 15 hour filming days.
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