Sian Welby: This Morning host apologises after being caught using her phone live on air, what happened

The 38-year-old presenter, who was standing in alongside Dermot O’Leary during the Easter break for regular hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, sparked confusion just minutes into the show on Wednesday (April 9) when she appeared to walk off camera and return with her phone in hand.

“Sorry, I wasn’t being unprofessional here,” Siân told viewers after Dermot took a cheeky jab: “Well it looks like you were being unprofessional,” he quipped.

“Your phone was on the studio floor,” he added, as Siân fired back, “No I wasn’t,” before joking: “You know what I’m like, I just want to check my Instagram to see how it’s going.”

She then explained what was actually happening, holding up her phone and turning to the wrong camera in the process. “No. Look at my phone screen here so basically, can you see these dots?” she said, before correcting herself: “Ohh sorry, look at the dots on the screen, these can apparently eliminate car sickness, I’m not too sure how they work but I know who does know - Alice Beer, you’re going to tell us more.”

Consumer journalist Alice Beer later returned to the programme to explain the science behind the phone feature, which is designed to reduce motion sickness - a common problem for passengers during car journeys.

“The motion sickness is our eyes saying 'you’re not moving' but your inner ear saying 'I’m moving around,'” Alice explained. “Which causes the sick feeling.”

Holding up her phone to the camera, she continued: “The dots down the side of the screen show both your ears and eyes that you are moving so that you know you are in motion and won’t get sick.”

She then demonstrated how to activate the function, adding with a smile: “If you take nothing else home from today, then take nothing else — I have changed your life, my job here is done.”