Alison Hammond broke down in tears on This Morning today as she admitted it was ‘really painful’ to watch Phillip Schofield being interviewed about his affair.
Ms Hammond, 48, who has been hosting the show with Dermot O’Leary during the fallout from the scandal, said the ‘family’ at ITV had been really struggling to process everything.
She said her late mother Maria, who died in 2020, used to tell her: ‘Use your Bible as a satnav in life, Al.’ Ms Hammond then quoted a passage from the Bible about a woman caught in adultery.
After watching the clip from the dramatic BBC interview in which Schofield said his daughters had saved his life, Ms Hammond was left in tears as she struggled to speak.
She told This Morning: ‘I was finding it really painful because obviously, you know, I loved Phillip Schofield, and it’s weird because I still love Phillip Schofield.
Alison Hammond breaks down in tears on This Morning as she talks about Phillip Schofield
Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary spoke about Schofield on ITV’s This Morning today
‘However what he’s done is wrong, he’s admitted it, he’s said sorry. But as a family we’re all really struggling to process everything. I never know what to say. But I remember what my mum used to say.
‘My mum always said, “Use your Bible as a satnav in life, Al”. And in the Bible it says, “He without sin, cast the first stone”. And I just don’t want to, I don’t want to say anything bad because obviously I’m in conflict. That’s how I feel.’
Hammond was quoting Jesus speaking in the Gospel of John, in which he is asked by the Pharisees whether they should stone a woman caught in adultery, and replies: ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’
Regular guest Gyles Brandreth described the Schofield issue as a ‘human story but with public implications’, adding: ‘We are dealing with a human being that all of us here have known and liked over many years. So it makes it difficult for us.’
Ms Hammond then said: ‘There’s so much a man can take, there’s so much. And I don’t want any death in this situation.’
Brandreth added: ‘I’m with you about he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. I mean there has been clearly an error of judgment at least here, which he admits to.’
In his first broadcast interview since the scandal erupted, the presenter explained how he messaged his former co-host to say he was ‘so, so sorry’ for lying to her about his ‘unwise, but not illegal’ relationship with the man who is 34 years his junior.
But he denied he had groomed a younger colleague before their affair and revealed that he is suicidal, telling critics: ‘Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am’.
The broadcaster, 61, also lifted the lid on how Holly Willoughby distanced herself from him when his paedophile brother was jailed and confirmed they are no longer speaking after he left ITV, although he admitted she may have been banned.
He said: ‘I WhatsApped her on the day I put out the statement. I said that you don’t have to reply, you probably can’t, but I want to say I’m desperately, desperately sorry’, adding Holly, who is currently on holiday in Portugal, hasn’t replied.
But shortly after Schofield confessed he’d sent her a text begging for forgiveness, Willoughby’s social media team took to Instagram to share a blasé post about hair care – with no mention of Phil or his apology.
Uploaded to the Wylde Moon account – Holly’s wellness blog – was a makeup-free selfie, with Holly sporting wet hair as she smouldered down the camera lens with newly-washed hair.
The post made no reference to her ‘feud’ with Schofield and instead offered tips on how to keep ‘your hair safe all summer long’.
Denying their relationship is ‘broken’, Schofield said today: ‘I adore Holly. I’ve always adored her. She’s my TV sister. I don’t have a problem with her at all.
Schofield told the BBC he first met his lover when he was 15 and in a theatre school where he offered him career advice without ‘any whiff of impropriety’. Their sexual relationship began with a kiss in his dressing room at work and led to ‘more’ on around six occasions when the man was around 20. Schofield said they were never in love, and remained ‘mates’ afterwards.
But he vehemently denied grooming him as a teenager before he began working at ITV, declaring: ‘What’s wrong with talking to someone?’
Speaking for the first time, Schofield revealed:
- He met the man at the centre of the scandal when he was 15 and in school. They began a sexual relationship when he was 20 and working at This Morning. Schofield denied it was grooming and said any sexual contact was ‘consensual’
- Phillip said that he would have taken his life by now if it wasn’t for his two daughters, claiming: ‘I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt’;
- The broadcaster believes his TV career is over and he will never be on the nation’s screens again;
- The star has begged Holly Willoughby for forgiveness by text – but she has not replied. He denied that they had been at the heart of any ‘toxicity’ or bullying at This Morning, insisting that culture didn’t exist;
- He thanks his family for their support – but admits his relationship with his wife Stephanie is ‘not great right now’;
- Schofield hit back at critic Eamonn Holmes, declaring: ‘All I see is angry people shouting about a show they’re not on any more’;
- Phillip claimed the reaction to his age gap romance was ‘homophobic’ – and said it would have been different if it was a man and a woman;
He said: ‘I would say to everyone, my family, friends, my work colleagues, to ITV, the public, my management company, the people I lied to: I am desperately sorry. But principally I would like to apologise to him.
‘It may have been consensual, fully legal, but I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen and that is a grave error on my part and I know that because if that an absolutely innocent person is being persecuted’.
Breaking his silence on the scandal that he admits has ended his career, Schofield claimed he will never be on TV again and revealed he would have taken his own life by now if it wasn’t for his daughters, declaring: ‘I understand how Caroline Flack felt’.
He apologised to his family, friends and ITV viewers for lying about the affair, but insisted that much of the criticism of him since he left This Morning had been homophobic. He also told of a ‘catastrophic effect’ on his mind.
He revealed he texted former co-host Holly Willoughby begging for forgiveness over his This Morning affair lies but she never replied.
Speaking to the BBC in an interview broadcast this morning, he said he has ‘lost everything’ and told of a ‘catastrophic effect’ on his mind.
The former This Morning presenter, 61, said the fallout from the revelations had been ‘relentless’ and urged the media to leave his former lover ‘alone now’.
Speaking to the BBC’s Amol Rajan, he told of the criticism he has faced since admitting the affair. He said he saw ‘nothing ahead’ of him and he had to talk about his career in television ‘in the past tense’.
He said: ‘It is relentless, and it is day after day, after day after day.
‘If you don’t think that that is going to have the most catastrophic effect on someone’s mind… do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am.
‘I have lost everything.’
Phillip said he felt relieved that his ‘biggest sorriest secret’ was now public – but claimed he was in the midst of a crisis that has seen him consider suicide. He quit This Morning last Friday having admitted he lied about their affair.
Love Island host Caroline Flack was found dead in February 2020 at the age of 40, and a coroner later ruled she took her own life after learning that prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge following an incident with her boyfriend Lewis Burton.
Schofield, 61, said today: ‘Last week, if my daughters hadn’t been there then I wouldn’t be here. And they’ve guarded me and won’t let me out of their sight, it’s like a weird numbness.
‘I know that’s a selfish point of view. But you come to a point where you just think, how much are you supposed to take? If all of those people that write all that stuff, do they ever think that there’s actually a person at the other end?’.
Asked by Rajan, the BBC’s media editor, if he was strong enough to do the interview, Schofield replied: ‘I have to’.
When pressed as to why, Schofield said in reference to his former colleague: ‘Because there is an innocent person here who didn’t do anything wrong, who is vulnerable and probably feels like I do.
‘And I just have to say, stop with him… leave him alone…’
Phillip Schofield has said he first started following his former lover on Twitter when he was aged 15 after he was asked to do so by a friend.
In an interview with Amol Rajan on the BBC, the former This Morning presenter explained he was invited by a friend to go to a school, something he said he has done ‘thousands of times’.
Schofield claimed he was later asked to follow ‘a fan’ back on Twitter, who was aged 15 at the time – to which the presenter agreed.
‘I follow 11,300 people and in all the time that I’ve been on Twitter there has never been any whiff of impropriety’, he added.
Last Friday, Schofield admitted that he had lied to ITV, his co-host, his agency YMU and lawyers about his relationship with a much younger colleague
Breaking his silence last night, Schofield claimed Willoughby distanced herself from him after his paedophile brother was convicted
Timothy Schofield (pictured) was jailed for 12 years for a slew of child sex offences including abusing a teenage boy he groomed
Clutching his vape, Schofield said his career is over
Asked by Rajan, the BBC’s media editor, if he was strong enough to do the interview, Schofield replied: ‘I have to’. When pressed as to why, Schofield said in reference to his former colleague: ‘Because there is an innocent person here who didn’t do anything wrong, who is vulnerable and probably feels like I do. ‘And I just have to say, stop with him… leave him alone…’.
Holly Willoughby has taken to Instagram to promote a hair product – but did not respond to Phillip Schofield’s interviews
Schofield revealed his most recent texts with Holly over the scandal – he has not received a reply to his most recent one (texts recreated by MailOnline above)
Phillip Schofield has revealed Holly Willoughby did not reply to his text which said he was ‘so, so sorry’ for lying to her about his ‘unwise, but not illegal’ relationship with a much younger colleague
Phillip Schofield has said ‘I think I understand how Caroline Flack felt’, in an interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan following his exit from This Morning last week. He said he is suicidal
Schofield said the last time he interacted with his former lover was a ‘couple of weeks’ ago when he organised a lawyer for him because he needed ‘independent’ support.
Schofield later confirmed he is paying for the man’s legal advice.
Phillip Schofield has told the BBC’s Amol Rajan that the first time he had any ‘kind of sexual contact’ with his former This Morning colleague, the younger man was 20.
He said the pair had last spoken when Schofield ‘engaged a lawyer for him’, adding: ‘He needed independent support. So that was the last time’.
Recounting the first time they met, Schofield told Rajan: ‘I was invited by a friend of mine to go to open a drama school… But whether it was immediately or sometime after, he said, ‘will you follow him on Twitter, because he’s a fan’. So I said, ‘yeah, sure, no problem’, which I did.’
Rajan added: ‘And he was what, 15 at the time?’.
Schofield said: ‘I follow 11,300 people, and in all the time I’ve been on Twitter, there has never been any whiff of impropriety.’
He went on to say the pair were ‘hardly’ in touch, but the young man had later gotten in contact to ask ‘if he could visit the studios, work experience-type of thing. I said come down and have a look, for sure, which he did.’
Schofield told Rajan the man was 19 when he had first expressed interest in a television career, and when asked by Rajan if, looking back on their messages, there was ‘any sense in which you were flirting with him?’, Schofield said: ‘No, I’ve been 41 years in television. Nothing like this before. No accusations. I mean, this is all accusations.’
Phillip Schofield has denied he had any sexual interaction with his former This Morning colleague when the younger man was underage, but said their later affair was ‘unforgivable’.
Asked directly by the BBC’s Amol Rajan if he had any kind of sexual relationship when his former lover was underage, Schofield said: ‘God no.
‘In my statement, it says ‘consensual relationship, fully legal’, I mean, that (the statement) was approved by both sides.’
Recalling how the affair began, Schofield said: ‘He’d been working at the show for a few months and we’d become mates, we were mates. Around the studios we’d hang out together, chat to each other, that sort of stuff.
‘And then in my dressing room one day something happened which obviously, I will regret forever for him and for me – mostly him.
‘That happened maybe four or five times over the next few months, and I know it’s unforgivable but we weren’t boyfriends, we weren’t in a relationship.
‘I was really in a mess with my sexuality at the time and it just happened.’
ITV boss Carolyn McCall will appear before MPs to face questions over the Phillip Schofield scandal
Schofield has said he ‘didn’t tell anybody’ about his affair with his former This Morning colleague but disagreed with any implication of ‘grooming’ the young man.
Asked by the BBC’s Amol Rajan about who on his team knew about the relationship, the presenter said: ‘Nobody to my knowledge. I mean somebody has to know something for there to be a rumour later on. I didn’t believe that anybody knew.’
Schofield reiterated that he never told his former co-host Holly Willoughby, adding: ‘That’s a bigger question because our make-up room was like a sanctuary so you tell everything in that room.
‘Holly knows everything about me, I know everything about Holly. Holly did not know. Nobody knew. I didn’t tell anybody.’
Rajan said the crux of the issue is whether there was a potential ‘abuse of power’, adding that it might be perceived as ‘grooming’.
‘The circumstances are as follows: you met someone who was a child, you were in a position of power over them. You use your power eventually to give them something they craved, which was shot at a job in the media. You nurtured a relationship and then that relationship became sexual. And they might ask, what’s the difference between that and grooming?’
Schofield replied: ‘Well, I would say that the initial list of things was not right anyway.
‘Because it was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers.
‘What’s wrong with talking to someone no matter what age they are? Does that mean that if you are following anyone on Twitter that you absolutely don’t talk to anybody else or you don’t give advice? So I disagree with the summation that you just gave, because that does paint a very grave picture.’
The 61-year-old, resigned from ITV on Friday and was dropped by his agency YMU after admitting to the tryst, while the network has instructed a barrister to review the facts around the star’s exit.
Willoughby is among those who may be grilled by the lawyer over the scandal, but those in her circle insisted last night that she has ‘nothing to hide’.
Alison Hammond, Dermot O’Leary, Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Langsford and Dr Ranj Singh may all be asked to give statements to employment lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC.
Breaking his silence for the first time since his sudden departure from ITV, Schofield told The Sun: ‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know. And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, ”I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.
‘She didn’t reply, and I understand why she didn’t reply, as well. So yeah. If anyone is in any way linking Holly to this — that is absolutely, wholly untrue.’
Since Schofield’s resignation, This Morning has been plagued by allegations of ‘toxicity’ – which has also impacted Willoughby’s standing.
Producers have also faced guests turning down offers to appear on This Morning – and its biggest sponsor, car dealer Arnold Clark, has confirmed it will not be renewing an existing multi-million-pound deal with the channel in autumn.
Yet Holly Willoughby is determined to fight to keep her spot on This Morning’s sofa and hopes to ‘ride out’ the ongoing scandal surrounding Schofield that has plunged ITV into a crisis, a source has claimed.
It comes amid fears that the programme will lose more of its advertisers as one insider said ‘brands do not feel ITV is a safe bet at the moment’.
However, a friend of Willoughby said the star ‘has nothing to hide’ from an ITV probe.
The star was in Portugal when she found out top silk Jane Mulcahy KC would be carrying out ‘an external review to establish the facts’.
A source told The Mirror: ‘Holly will of course 100% cooperate with the inquiry should she be asked, as she has nothing to hide whatsoever.
‘She has made crystal clear that Phil lied to her about his relationship with the runner, and is super relaxed about giving her version of events.’
Schofield claimed his relationship with his former best friend broke down after his brother was jailed, which made her distance herself from the friendship.
The veteran ITV presenter had stepped down from his role on This Morning just days after his paedophile brother Timothy Schofield was jailed for 12 years for a slew of child sex offences including abusing a teenage boy he groomed.
The star’s 54-year-old brother was convicted of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child, after a trial at Exeter Crown Court in April.
During the bombshell interview, Schofield said that Willoughby had been one of the first people he confided in after his brother confessed to the horrendous behaviour.
He said that his co-host had been incredibly supportive throughout the trial, ‘holding [his] hand every step of the way’.
Last Friday, Schofield admitted that he had lied to ITV, his co-host, his agency YMU and lawyers about his relationship with a much younger colleague.
The revelation sent ITV into meltdown, being forced to launch an external investigation into the affair, after a number of former workers claimed the station’s bosses must have known about their romance.
Last night, Schofield insisted he ‘did not’ groom the young boy, who he had met when he was just 15 years old.
The young man then asked the former host for a job, landing a role in ITV production when he turned 18. The affair began sometime after that.
Schofield has now insisted his interactions with the younger male before he joined This Morning were ‘completely innocent.’
He told The Sun: ‘I did not, I did not [groom him].
‘There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that.
‘But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgment, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that anywhere else.’
He also told the newspaper that he did not ‘lie to protect’ his career, but the colleague who ‘did not want his name in public.
Schofield said the romance began after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room in 2017 but insisted ‘it was not a love affair’.
‘It was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates.’
‘It wasn’t feelings [I was getting], it was more like mates: excitement.’
The former This Morning presenter said he was struggling with his sexuality at the time, and the pair were together ‘maybe five or six times’.
He added: ‘We just didn’t think anyone knew, there was no lying, we thought, stupidly, that nobody knew.’
Schofield said his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout from the affair was to his former lover.
He went on: ‘It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends. It has brought the greatest grief to them.’
He added: ‘I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better. I should have acted the way I have always acted. I should not have done it.
‘I’m sorry. And I will forever be sorry. I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.’
Schofield suggested homophobia could be behind some of the criticism levelled at him over the age gap.
He said: ‘Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world.
‘There shouldn’t be a difference. This is where homophobia comes in.
‘We did first meet when he was 15, I visited the drama school (he attended).’
He added: ‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world.’
The fling took place while the TV star was still married to his wife of 30 years Stephanie Lowe, whom he has two daughters with.
Schofield’s loyal wife has been left both furious and devastated by his admission that he had an affair with a much younger colleague during their marriage.
Friends say that Ms Lowe, the mother of the presenter’s two grown-up daughters, had no idea he was in a relationship because Schofield had always described the man as a friend and colleague.
Recalling the moment he confessed to the affair, having previously denied it when she had asked him, the former host said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ‘I need to talk to you’. She called back and I told her.’
‘She was very, very angry.’
It can also be revealed that the former This Morning star’s eldest daughter Molly only found out about her father’s statement to the Daily Mail in which he admitted lying over the relationship with the man just minutes before the story broke.
Friends say that she was at work at YMU, the talent agency that represented Schofield for 35 years, when she found out.
Staff there say she was in such shock she had to be comforted before going home.
An interview between Schofield and the BBC’s Amol Rajan will be released today.
In a trailer released by the broadcaster, Schofield said: ‘It was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers.
‘What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with talking to someone no matter what age they are?
‘Does that mean that if you’re following anyone on Twitter that you absolutely don’t talk to anybody else or you don’t give advice?’
He added: ‘The brief communications backwards and forwards up to the point that he came to work on This Morning I think was just chat.’
It follows the revelation that under-fire ITV boss Carolyn McCall has been called to appear before MPs to face questions over how the broadcaster approaches safeguarding and complaint handling.
Holly Willoughby is spending half term more than a thousand miles away from the This Morning drama as she holidays with family in Portugal, it has been revealed (Pictured: Holly on a previous trip)
Holly Willoughby has been spotted on holiday in Portugal. She is pictured with Phillip Schofield on this Morning earlier this month
Schofield was seen today in London for the first time since quitting ITV and This Morning
Phillip Schofield broke his silence tonight, saying he’s ‘broken and ashamed’ but not a groomer in his first interview since admitting an affair
The former This Morning star said the affair ‘never came across’ as an abuse of power because he and his lover were ‘mates’
Holly has often spent time with her mother Linda while taking a break from her life on TV
Family: Holly is pictured with Terry in a beaming snap, which she previously shared to Instagram
Schofield’s admission to the affair with his junior colleague plunged the station into a crisis, seeing sponsors back out of multi-million-pound deals.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has today written to Dame Carolyn asking her to attend Parliament at 10am on Wednesday, June 14.
It comes after she was forced into a humiliating climbdown yesterday by announcing the broadcaster was bringing in a barrister to ‘carry out an external review to establish the facts’ around the chaos that has engulfed ITV since Schofield made his statement last week.
Holly Willoughby is spending half term more than a thousand miles away from the This Morning drama as she holidays with family in Portugal, it has also been revealed.
The ITV star has been pictured out for dinner with her parents Linda and Brian, sister Kelly, and three children near to her £8million Algarve villa.
An onlooker said Willoughby, 42, appeared to be trying to stay under the radar, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
‘The area is a holiday hotspot for Brits, so she is probably worried about being asked about the This Morning scandal,’ they told The Sun.
‘At one point, Holly spoke at length to a waiter who it seemed like she knew personally.
‘She seemed to be having a great time – unlike her old pal Phillip.’
Willoughby is believed to have spent the week in the 23C sun as the Phillip Schofield scandal deepens.
Willoughby is due to return to This Morning next Monday following the half-term break, having taken the early holiday when news of Schofield’s departure emerged.
Willoughby has been silent since putting out an Instagram statement on Saturday which said it had ‘taken time to process yesterday’s news’ following Schofield’s statement, adding: ‘When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie.’
She is due to return to This Morning next Monday following the half-term break, but former presenter Eamonn Holmes predicted she will not return to the sofa following Schofield’s bombshell exit.
ITV announced it had commissioned an external inquiry into Phillip Schofield’s relationship with a much younger colleague
Jane Mulcahy KC of Blackstone Chambers has been instructed by ITV to carry out an external review
TV presenter Phillip Schofield speaks to the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan about his affair
Schofield was seen taking drags from a light blue vape as he answered questions from The Sun
Ms Hammond’s co-host Dermot O’Leary said: ‘Also, as a society, quite rightly, we talk about mental health all the time. But that can’t be the preserve of people who are on the right side of history.’
Earlier in the programme, O’Leary had also said: ‘This has been very difficult for us to cover this story as he’s a friend and a colleague.’
In the BBC interview, Schofield said he had ‘lost everything’ in the wake of his affair with a younger male colleague and told of the ‘catastrophic effect’ of the furore on his mind.
The former This Morning presenter, 61, said the fallout from the revelations had been ‘relentless’ and urged the media to leave his former lover ‘alone now’.
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details
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