Phillip Schofield has said his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout of his affair was to his much younger former lover, as he admits old photos of them together ‘look shocking’.
Breaking his silence for the first time since he admitted lying to ITV, his lawyers, his wife and co-star of 14 years about the ‘unwise, but not illegal’ relationship with his junior colleague, Schofield admitted he ‘should have known better’.
Speaking of his former lover, the This Morning star said tonight: ‘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.
‘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.’
Speaking for the first time since leaving This Morning, Phillip Schofield said his ‘greatest apology’ over the fallout of his affair was to his much younger former lover
Schofield, his former lover and Holly Willoughby sat on the This Morning sofa together
Describing himself as a ‘broken’ man, Schofield denied accusations that he groomed the young man who landed a job at This Morning after meeting the former host.
Tonight, Schofield admitted old photographs of the men together that emerged online ‘looked shocking’.
He told The Sun: ‘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.
‘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.’
Schofield had met the young man when he was just 15 and still at drama school. He then asked the ex-host for a job, which led to a position as an ITV production assistant when he turned 18. Sometime after that, the affair began.
After the young man reportedly declared his love for Schofield at an awards ceremony in January 2020, he was then moved to Loose Women, another of the network’s programmes, before eventually leaving the broadcaster.
Tonight the former ITV veteran insisted to the newspaper that he did not ‘lie to protect’ his career but his colleague had not wanted ‘his name in public’.
The affair, he said, began in 2017 after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
He shut down claims that the pair were in a full-blown relationship, claiming it was ‘not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates’.
In his first sit down interview since leaving ITV earlier this month, he admitted his wife, who he has still not divorced from despite separating after he came out as gay in 2020.
Schofield leaving The Ivy Club with his much younger ex-lover (pictured left) in 2017
Describing himself as a ‘broken’ man, Schofield denied accusations that he groomed the young man who landed a job at This Morning after meeting the former host
Schofield said his wife of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe, was ‘very, very angry’ when he told her about the affair. Pictured: Schofield with his wife and two daughters, Molly and Ruby Lowe
He said his partner of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe, was ‘very, very angry’ with him after he confessed about his affair with his former colleague.
The This Morning presenter of more than 20 years had denied to his wife he was having an affair when she had previously quizzed him on it.
He 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.’
The ex-host went on to shut down allegations that he had groomed the young boy.
He 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 BBC is also set to release an interview with Schofield being grilled by Amol Rajan.
In a trailer, the former host also 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.’
Schofield clarified why 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.’
Tonight’s revelations come as ITV’s under-fire doss, Dame Carolyn McCall, has been called to appear before MPs to face questions over how the station handles safeguarding and complaints.
Schofield’s admission has led to a number of high-profile stars, including former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes and the programme’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh, raising concerns over a ‘toxic’ work environment behind the scenes.
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.
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