Phillip Schofield was accused of “lying again” tonight – after claiming on his new TV show he was sacked by ITV over his brother’s sexual assault conviction. In an extraordinary final episode of his new Channel 5 series, Phillip insists that despite saying in a statement at the time he had resigned from ITV, he was actually forced out by bosses.
He says: “What people don’t realise is I wasn’t fired from This Morning when I admitted lying. It was before, because of someone I used to call brother. “I was fired for the bad publicity, for someone else’s crime.”
In May 2023, Timothy Schofield was jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a boy. TV host Phillip took time off-screen during the court case and left This Morning soon after amidst front-page stories saying he had fallen out with co-host and former best friend Holly Willoughby. There were also revelations about an affair he had with a younger male colleague which then led to him resigning completely from ITV.
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An ITV source exclusively told the Mirror: “Phillip’s new comments are simply untrue, he is lying again. “We stood by him through his brother’s court case and he then stepped away when things became too much. There was a lot going on and some relationships on the programme had become untenable as was reported at the time.
“He then admitted himself he had been lying about an affair and he resigned from ITV altogether. We didn’t sack him, he lied to us and then he resigned, there is not much else to say.”
Phillip Schofield and his brother Timothy in a photo taken years before Tim was charged. (
Image:
Instagram Phillip Schofield)
But Phillip is still clearly wounded by what happened which has almost put an end to a career lasting more than four decades on screen. In Phillip Schofield’s Cast Away, he says he has been “cancelled” but has returned to the screen in this new Channel 5 format spending ten days on a desert island. He believes his brother’s horrific crimes have a large part to play in his situation now.
He says: “When I look back, the media turning sour on me stems from one event. There is a member of my family who I refused to name and refused to acknowledge, who committed a heinous crime. I had absolutely no qualms whatsoever in shopping him. We were praised by the police, and we got justice done. But still, even though they knew all of the facts, the papers painted me out to be some sort of complicit agent.
“That’s where my world started to collapse. My poor mum, I had to tell her about that member of the family. To break that to your mother, is tough, and I had to go through everything with hierarchy at ITV, the full entire story, so that they knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. The full story.”
He added: “Everything came to a head the day before he was sentenced, when my agent called. My phone rang and I picked it up…I’m afraid you’ve been let go from This Morning…yeah, that’s it, it’s done. You’re not going back on Monday.” When he asked his agent the reason why he claims he was told ‘because of the publicity’ and he replied “That’s nothing to do with me”.
Phillip added: “Why would I be sacked for something that someone else did? I’ve just been fired because of him. Because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It’s better for the show, better for the channel. And I agreed to say that I resigned because it would be neater for everybody.
“I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother. I was fired for the bad publicity, for someone else’s crime. And the thing is, about a week later, I blew my own wheels off with everything else, because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody, is to do a full Mia culpa.
“I came clean about my affair. What people don’t realise is, I wasn’t fired from This Morning when I admitted lying. It was before, because of someone I used to call brother. That is my last story looking back.” Phillip’s new comments are in contrast to what he and others said at the time.
In April last year his brother Timothy was found guilty of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019. Phillip Schofield said at the time: “My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my brother, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family.
“As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.” On May 19, 2023, Tim Schofield was then jailed for 12 years. Following this and reports of a fall out with Holly, Schofield was not presenting on daytime TV and he then left This Morning without saying goodbye on screen. Reports at the time suggested he had been edged out after relationships behind the scenes broke down, as opposed to anything regarding his brother.
Phillip said on May 20 last year: “Throughout my career in TV – including in the very difficult last few days – I have always done my best to be honourable and kind. I understand that ITV has decided the current situation can’t go on, and I want to do what I can to protect the show that I love. So I have agreed to step down from This Morning with immediate effect, in the hope that the show can move forward to a bright future.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me – especially This Morning’s amazing viewers – and I’ll see you all for the Soap Awards next month.” At that point Phillip would continue working with the broadcaster, ITV said, including fronting The British Soap Awards in June and a “brand new peak time series to come”.
Kevin Lygo, ITV’s managing director, media and entertainment, called Schofield “one of the best broadcasters of his generation” and thanked him for “two decades worth of absolutely terrific television”. But a week later things got worse for Phillip as he lost his agent and quit his remaining ITV commitments when his affair became public knowledge.
On May 26 he apologised to the Daily Mail for lying to them about allegations put to him and he added: “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning. Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
“When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody ‘forced’ me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
“In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship. But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.”
In a further admission of the huge mistakes he has made, which looks to put any future TV career in doubt, he added in the statement: “I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.
“I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me. I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.
“To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so. I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.”
On the same day, Phillip’s long term agents also ended their relationship with him. Mary Bekhait, the Group CEO of YMU Group, said: “Honesty and integrity are core values for YMU’s whole business, defining everything we do. Talent management is a relationship based entirely on trust.
“This week, we have learned important new information about our client Phillip Schofield. These facts contradicted what Phillip had previously told YMU, as well as the external advisors we had brought in to support him. As a result, on Thursday we agreed to part company with Phillip, with immediate effect.”
In response Schofield said: “It is with the most profound regret that after 35 years of being faultlessly managed by YMU I have agreed to step down from their representation with immediate effect.” Schofield, who also is seen running naked into the see in the final episode of his Channel 5 series, ends the project seemingly unclear about what the future holds, in part because it may depend on how the series is received by viewers.
After leaving the island to return home he says: “I’m not saying I’m done, but you know, never in a million years will I go back to daytime telly. I’ve lived a hundred TV lives. I think the most important thing I’d like anyone to take away would be to say, okay, that’s the guy he is. That’s what he’s like. This is the person that my family sees. This is who I am.”
He had spoken earlier in the series about how his daughters Ruby and Molly had saved him from suicidal thoughts at his lowest point last year. Molly ends the series saying: “Seeing him recover, we never thought that would happen. We never thought that would happen. So now he is where he is. It is the best thing ever, seeing how far he’s come. I am so incredibly proud to say he’s my dad, and I always will be, no matter what.”
