Alison Hammond has been praised for the way she stood up for Andy Burnham's wife live on This Morning when she and Dermot O'Leary were interviewing the Prime Minister17:09, 30 Jul 2026Updated 17:10, 30 Jul 2026Alison Hammond has been praised for the way she stood up for Andy Burnham's wife. The TV presenter was back in her usual slot as relief host on This Morning alongside Dermot O'Leary when they were joined by the new Prime Minister.‌Andy, 56, has been married to businesswoman Marie-France van Heel, also 56, since 2000 and they have three children but when the couple were pictured together outside 10 Downing Street for the first time, they were met with body-shaming trolls, who mostly targeted Marie with their cruel comments.‌Candidly addressing the subject, Alison began: "You've had a lot of criticism. In fact, your wife has had a lot of criticism, which I just think was uncalled for. How do you deal with that? How do you cope with people judging what you're wearing, how much it costs, and things like that? How do you deal with that?"‌Andy responded: "Oh, I'm not gonna moan about that. You've put yourself there and you accept that as part of what comes with the job. It's like complain about the weather, isn't it? It's just there. But we've taken the decision as a family, I've talked to them about it."So, all my family were there and I've talked to them all about it. I'm just gonna try to go at this in the right way and take the rough with the smooth, I'm just going to give it the best I can and be myself."‌Alison was still adamant that it was a "different thing" when his wife became involved, and she told him that she looked "absolutely beautiful" on the day regardless of what trolls had to say, and Andy smiled as he said: "Oh, thank you. I'll tell her. Thanks, Alison."The clip of the interview quickly gathered pace on social media, and fans rushed to the comments section to praise former Big Brother star Alison for the way she spoke out about the PM's wife. One wrote: "Smashing it Alsion - so brilliant when you do interviews! Real and genuine."‌Another said: "Well said @alisonhammond55!! People are always so mean about women's looks & styles - but never the men xx" and a third said: "Alison Hammond is sheer class...love her."The strong reaction comes shortly after Vicar of Dibley star Dawn French unleashed a furious rant on social media to blast those who had said negative things about Marie.Taking to Instagram, the comedienne said: "So, a woman… a human normal woman standing there and all you can talk about is her dress and her body. How dare you body shame her?‌"she is a bright woman who speaks lots of languages; she’s run businesses; she’s faced challenges you wouldn’t even begin to imagine. You wouldn’t have the f***ing courage for it. Stop it! Stop bullying people! It’s a human being with a human body!"Born in January 1970, Marie-France van Heel grew up in the Netherlands and Belgium before moving to the UK and going to Cambridge University, and works in marketing and strategy.She is the chief marketing officer at Iduna Infrastructure, a firm which owns large parts of Manchester’s electric vehicle charging network – meaning her husband had to exempt himself from EV network decisions while Mayor.Article continues below* Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .