Carol McGiffin has claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip Schofield as she reacted to the presenter breaking his silence on his affair.
The former Loose Women star, 63, heaped criticism on the ex-This Morning presenter, 61, as she spoke to Dan Wootton on GB News on Thursday night.
Her comments came just hours after Phillip said he is ‘broken and ashamed’ but claimed he did not groom his colleague in his first interview since admitting an affair.
Phillip resigned from ITV last week and was dropped by his agency YMU after admitting to an ‘unwise, but not illegal’ affair with a younger male colleague.
Reacting to his first interview since the news, Carol claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip as she said nobody has said ‘a good word’ about him.
Fuming: Carol McGiffin has claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip Schofield as she reacted to the presenter breaking his silence on his affair
Breaking his silence: Her comments came hours after Phillip said he is ‘broken and ashamed’ but claimed he did not groom his colleague in his first interview since admitting an affair
‘I don’t know anybody who’s actually ever said out loud that they really like Phillip,’ she said.
‘I don’t think he was liked by any of the Loose Women, I never heard anybody there say that they actually like him and no one ever really had a good word for him.’
This Morning always features a segment with the Loose Women panel before they hand over to the show on ITV, and Carol claimed Phillip always made it ‘uncomfortable’ because he was ‘dismissive’.
She also alleged that a runner on Loose Women was let go from his role when Phillip’s lover was promoted to a new position on the show from This Morning.
The ‘unprecedented’ move is said to have left several members of the Loose Women panel ‘uncomfortable’, and Carol has now spoken on those claimed.
Carol, who was recently forced to quit Loose Women, said: ‘Everybody was really quite upset about it because everybody loved him. And he was a great runner.
‘I got a text message and it was from the young man in question. And he said, I’m the new production secretary at Loose Women. I thought, “hang on a minute. What’s happened here?”‘
Carol also alleged that Phillip is trying to ‘take the fall’ for bosses at ITV as she voiced her opinion that This Morning cannot carry on, even without Phillip, and should be axed.
Not liked: Reacting to his first interview since the news, Carol claimed that none of the Loose Women panel like Phillip as she said nobody has said ‘a good word’ about him
Axing? Carol also alleged that Phillip (pictured with Holly Willoughby) is trying to ‘take the fall’ for bosses at ITV as she voiced her opinion that This Morning should be axed
She said: ‘I’m pretty certain that [Phillip] is he’s trying to take the fall for them all. And the way I see it, they’re so arrogant. Most TV bosses are the same. They’re really arrogant.
‘They think they’re invincible and they just think “right, let’s just carry on, move along, put Holly [Willoughby] back on the show, let’s just get back to normal and everything will be alright, Phillip’s apologised and it’s all going to be okay’, but it’s not going to be okay.’
‘I think genuinely that This Morning, this show can’t go on. I think it’s way too tainted,’ she added.
MailOnline has contacted ITV for comment.
Last week, an ITV spokesperson said: ‘ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.
‘Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip’s then agency YMU.
‘In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.
‘Phillip’s statement reveals that he lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU, to the media and to others over this relationship.’
Earlier this month, Carol was forced to quit Loose Women after a bizarre radio rant, including claiming the Covid pandemic was a World Health Organisation plot to take over every government.
She confirmed that she had left the lunchtime show, protesting that ITV insisted she sign a contract with clauses that were ‘totally unjust and unworkable’.
But The Mail on Sunday then disclosed that a free speech row was at the centre of her departure, after a backlash over her tirade in an interview on TNT talk radio.
Carol’s comments came shortly after Phillip broke his silence on Thursday by saying he’s ‘broken and ashamed’ but not a groomer in his first interview since admitting an affair.
Exit: Earlier this month, Carol was forced to quit Loose Women after a radio rant, including claiming the Covid pandemic was a WHO plot to take over every government
Candid: Phillip broke his silence on Thursday night by saying he’s ‘broken and ashamed’ but not a groomer in his first interview since admitting an affair
He claimed the affair ‘never came across’ as an abuse of power because he and his lover were ‘mates’.
He told The Sun: ‘I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career. There is no excuse. No one did anything wrong apart from me.’
In his first interview since leaving the broadcaster and This Morning, Phillip said: ‘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.’
The former ITV veteran insisted to the newspaper that he did not ‘lie to protect’ his own career but that his colleague had not wanted ‘his name in public’.
‘At the time I did not think about it possibly ruining my career. I really probably only thought about it when I saw the rumour mill, and saw it growing’, he told The Sun.
‘Then I saw the link with the drama school photo all those years before, and thought, ‘This looks shocking’.
‘But I didn’t lie to protect my career, he didn’t want his name in public. He wanted his own life.’
He said their affair had begun in 2017 following a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
Despite this, he shut down claims that the pair were boyfriends, claiming it was ‘not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates’.
Throughout the interview, Phillip offered a number of apologies, including to his co-presenter of 14 years Holly Willoughby and his wife of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe.
But he said his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout from the affair was to his former lover.
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.’
Phillip had reportedly first met the man when he was 15 years old, but said the affair did not begin until he was much older and had begun working at ITV.
The BBC is also set to release an interview with Schofield being grilled by Amol Rajan.
Interviews: The BBC is also set to release an interview (pictured) with Phillip being grilled by Amol Rajan about his relationship with his younger This Morning colleague
Bombshell: Last Friday, Phillip quit ITV and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting to an affair with a young male This Morning colleague
In a trailer released tonight, the presenter told BBC News: ‘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.’
Phillip clarified why his he said in his statement last week said the affair was ‘unwise’, and called it a ‘very, very grave error’.
He added: ‘It was consensual, but it was my fault.’
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