Phillip left This Morning, and ITV altogether, in May 2023 after admitting to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger colleague
Phillip Schofield(Image: PA)
Phillip Schofield has spoken out in a new interview, three years after the life-changing scandal that left him thinking there was “no way back”.
Phillip left his long-running job on This Morning, and later ITV altogether, in May 2023 after admitting to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger colleague. His co-host Holly Willoughby continued presenting the programme after his exit, but just months later decided to step down from the role.
It was then in September 2024 that Phillip starred in the Channel 5 programme, Cast Away, where he discussed departing the daytime show for the first time. He spent 10 days alone on a small island off the coast of Madagascar in his first return to a TV series since leaving This Morning.
Now, three years on, Phillip, from Oldham, has described the period that followed the end of his long-running and highly-paid career as “utterly brutal”. Despite this, the 64-year-old insists he is “content” with his new life.
Phillip was forced to leave This Morning in 2023, and Holly’s exit followed months later(Image: ITV)
“I decided a while ago that I just wanted a quiet life with family, friends I can trust and my dog,” he told the Daily Mail. Sharing how he now keeps his “head down”, he added: “The past few years were, as you know, utterly brutal on so many levels and I came to terms with the fact that there was no way back.”
At the time of his This Morning exit, Phillip issued a statement to the same publication after previously denying his relationship with a much younger colleague, which he claimed was just a friendship. “I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning,” he told the Mail.
“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.”