Fiona Phillips has claimed that her GMTV colleague Kate Garraway will be pleased to see her leave the breakfast show.

The programme's host announced last week that she is quitting to spend more time with her family. She will front her final episode in December.

Phillips spoke candidly about Garraway after she failed to get in touch to wish her well following the announcement, though Kate did so later in a text message to Fiona's husband.

"She is probably quite pleased that I am going. I have the top job. It wouldn't be natural and she'd be lying if she said she didn't want it," Phillips told the Daily Mail. "It doesn't annoy me that I haven't heard from her. Nor am I basing any of my decisions on how she feels."

Garraway has recently set tongues wagging by posing for pictures which appear to show her breastfeeding a calf. The photoshoot was designed to promote a Channel 4 documentary about women who breastfeed other people's babies.

Asked about the matter, Phillips replied: "I can't really talk about that but people handle things in different ways. But I have never done that or 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."