The TV star was quizzed about the images when he appeared on ITV’s This Morning

Watch Stephen Mulhern reveal truth behind those pictures with Josie Gibson

What did you miss?

Stephen Mulhern has played down romance rumours after he was snapped holding hands with Josie Gibson, insisting he was just helping her out.

The In For A Penny presenter and the This Morning star were photographed looking cosy outside BBC Studios last month, with Gibson smiling as she clutched Mulhern’s hand. The pair were walking along together after filming the final episode of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Mulhern was quizzed about it during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning but played it coy, smirking as he told hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard that he had only been showing Gibson where to stand on Ant and Dec’s TV show.

Stephen Mulhern on this Morning. (ITV screengrab)

What, how, and why?

Mulhern’s interview had finished without any mention of the photographs when Deeley suddenly turned to him and revealed that he wasn’t being let off the hook. “We couldn’t let you go without… Josie!” she said.

The TV star smiled and looked as if he was blushing as he tried to set the record straight, telling the programme’s hosts: “Listen, she didn’t turn up to rehearsals. I held her hand and I showed her where to stand.”

“That is it,” he said, as Deeley and Shephard both giggled and looked at him as if they didn’t believe him at all. “Uh huh, really?” Deeley asked, joking about Mulhern’s lips being sealed. “We think you protest too much,” Shephard chimed in.

Laughing, Mulhern responded: “Why are you doing this to me?”

Josie Gibson makes ‘in love’ comment

Josie Gibson has been romantically linked to Stephen Mulhern. (PA Images via Getty Images)
The snaps of Gibson and Mulhern sent the rumour mill into overdrive when they emerged, with fans hoping the TV favourites were an item. Former Big Brother star Gibson then fuelled the speculation when she was asked about it by MailOnline.

“I’m in love with Stephen Mulhern,” she quipped. “There you go. But story of my life, I don’t think he loves me.”

However, she later told OK! magazine that the pair were actually just “really good friends”. “I really adore him, but there’s no romance in the air,” she said.

“Every bloke that I come in contact with, the press seems to think that I’m having it off with them,” she went on. “People must think I’m a right goer. I’m not like that. To be with somebody or to even kiss somebody, I’ve really got to love them.”

Josie Gibson has said she and Stephen Mulhern are good friends. (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
The star previously dated her Big Brother housemate John James Parton and was in a relationship with a man named Terry, who she shares five-year-old son Reggie with.

When Gibson went on I’m A Celebrity last year she apparently opened up to her fellow camper, First Dates star Fred Sirieix, about wanting to find love. After the show ended, the Mirror quoted him as saying: “We talked a lot about Josie’s love life and I am on the search for a man for her.”

However, Gibson also revealed on the jungle show that she’d had her share of dud relationships, confessing: “Snakes, I’m quite good with… I fell in love with enough!”