Fitness influencer grilled by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby over lockdown Dubai trip on This Morning

A North East influencer, who travelled to Dubai ahead of England’s third national lockdown, appeared on ITV’s This Morning on Tuesday and told presenters that she took the trip for her own mental health, as well as for the sake of her personal training business.

Personal trainer Sheridan Mordew, 24, who works in Sunderland joined hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby via a video link from Dubai, where she has been staying since 2 January.

She told the presenters as another lockdown was looming in and her mental health took a plunge, she needed to find a way to keep motivating her followers.

Sheridan said: “Being a motivator myself, a lot of my clients depend on me to bring them motivation, to bring them happiness.

"I’m not going to start something new by just sitting in the house. And I had this idea and I could not be bothered. With my own self struggles, the only way I’m going to get out of this is find an opportunity to get on a plane for essential travel and get out to Dubai.”

Presenters Phil and Holly questioned her decision.

Holly said: "There are so many people who are suffering with their mental health, however, the rules on travel have nothing to do with mental health, it's purely based on work."

Phil questioned if the trip was essential for her business as most of her workouts were being filmed in her apartment.

"You could be doing that in your garage at home,” he said.

Sheridan told This Morning it’s difficult for influencers to bring content from their homes.

She said: "I’m not going to get content sitting in the house watching Netflix. Being a regular PT, it’s hard to get content. The only thing you can do in the house is take photos in the mirror. It’s all about the whole aspect of content and kind of increasing people’s mental health on the way.”

"It all narrows down to your happiness. When I was sitting in the house, mentally I didn’t feel like I could be bothered to do anything because the weather and the lockdown.

"So, for myself, I got an opportunity to go away, Yes, you’re in the sun, but if it was Benidorm, I would go to Benidorm. It’s just because Dubai is the only place open. And if anybody else had an opportunity to say ‘I got no ties, I can get away to a different destination, I’m working for business, I’m getting paid’, a lot of people would jump on the opportunity to do that.”

But Holly remained unconvinced and said that she was left feeling ‘jealous’, rather than motivated, after seeing Sheridan’s photos from her time spent in Dubai.