Keith Lemon reveals Laura Whitmore made her Celebrity Juice debut in the AUDIENCE

Keith Lemon has revealed that he spotted Laura Whitmore years before she replaced Holly Willoughby on Celebrity Juice, as she actually made her debut in the audience.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline ahead of the long-awaited new series, the presenter, 45, implied the Love Island host, 35, has come full circle after he was stunned to see her sat in the audience during filming.

Laura and former Inbetweeners actress Emily Atack, 30, are set to debut as Celebrity Juice’s new team captains when the new series begins on Thursday, after Holly announced she’d quit the show in May.

Keith told MailOnline: ‘I can remember Whitmore many many years ago as in the audience of Celebrity Juice and then I saw her and said ”what are you doing here,” and she said ”I came to watch” and I said ”you’ve been sat in the audience”.’

The writer, real name Leigh Francis, added that longtime friends Laura and Emily were his first choices to be Celebrity Juice’s new team captains, and he lobbied with bosses for them to land the job.

He said: ‘They were my first choices, I was in a Zoom meeting and everyone was saying names and I just kept quiet as I thought ”they might think of a name I haven’t thought of.”

‘So I’d already drawn a picture of the three of us together and they said ‘what do you think?’ 

‘And I just held it up and said this is what I think I can’t thing of anyone else, and they said ”let’s go away and think about it” and then we spoke to the channel and they said ”yep we’re gonna go for Whitmore and Atack” and I said ”good cos I’ve already told them!”

Keith added: ‘I said to both of them look we’ve had a meeting there’s loads of names your names came up, and I just wanted to Gage how much you’d be up for doing it, and Whitmore said ”I’d be honoured.” 

‘And I knew Atack wanted it because when she came out of jungle she came round our house and said ‘I want Holly’s job!’ and I said ‘well you’re not getting it not while Holly’s still there,’ because she’d been rumoured before taking Fearne’s seat.’ 

As ever Celebrity Juice’s new series will feature a slew of stars taking part in an array of games, including Maya Jama, Marvin Humes and TOWIE’s Gemma Collins, though it has seen a reduced audience and social distancing due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Keith admitted Kylie Minogue remained at the top of his list of dream guests he wanted to appear on the show, but she’d turned him down numerous times. 

Asked whether he worried that the show may go a step too far in its risqué behaviour, Keith admitted he thinks the show’s ‘daft’ nature, prevents it from taking a step too far. 

He said: ‘Obviously I don’t approach anything with malice anyway and I think Juice is sometimes so rude it’s like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, how violent used to be, just whacking a cat over the head with an iron and stuff! 

‘And I think well Juice is a bit like that, especially back in the day when Fearne and I would say nasty things to each other we would start laughing! Yeah it’s all silly Juice so not really and then they have a meeting straight after, they go into a lawyers straight after.’

Emily and Laura have both starred as guests on the much-loved show, but the upcoming series will mark the first time they will battle it out with their star-studded teams.

The last series, which aired from April until May, was fronted by both broadcaster Holly and Spice Girls’ Mel B, 45.

Kelly Brook, Gino D’Acampo and Paddy McGuinness have also served as team captains in the past.

Celebrity Juice starts on Thursday, October 22nd at 10pm on ITV2.