This Morning has been rocked by many revelations the past few weeks (Picture: Ken McKay/ ITV/ Shutterstock)
A former This Morning employee has spilled what it was like working on the set of the breakfast programme, which involved being barred from speaking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.
From September to December 2019, Emily Maddick was the Head of News at the show but quit due to what she labelled ‘bullying, sexism and a toxic culture of fear and intimidation’.
She’s now detailed her experience following the exit of Schofield, 61, after he admitted to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a much younger colleague, which has sparked ITV to now conduct an external review.
After former employees including Eamonn Holmes and Dr Ranj Singh spoke out about the ‘toxic culture’, Maddick has now published extracts from her exit interview after resigning three years ago.
‘I am sad to report there is a culture of intimidation at This Morning and on a number of occasions this has prevented me from doing my job to the best of my ability,’ she wrote in a piece published on Glamour, where she now works.
Recalling a ‘climate of fear’, Maddick said she had ‘overheard’ what she found to be sexist comments at time, and pointed to instances of bullying that left her concerned about the ‘mental health’ of her team.
Maddick quit This Morning after three months (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
She did not hold back when describing how rumours were swirling about Schofield and his young male lover at the time, which Maddick called an ‘open secret’ and accused ‘those in power’ of being ‘complicit’ in failing to address it.
Turning her attention to the general conduct of Schofield and Willoughby, 42, to their colleagues, Maddick said they were anything but the ‘fun fun, friendly and fits-of-fizzy-giggles-funny as they appeared on screen’.
Despite being responsible for running a team that ‘worked tirelessly around the clock’ to bring the hosts ‘fodder for their cosy sofa chats every day’, Maddick said she was ‘not allowed’ to communicate with either of them.
During the three months she worked there, the journalist did not speak to Schofield – whom she said did ‘glare’ at her on several occasions – and only interacted with Willoughby once when holding open a door for the host and ‘complimenting her skirt’.
‘They were treated like gods, kept in a gilded cage, with their daily meetings with the editor held in their dressing rooms, away from the team,’ she said.
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were some of the people Maddick said were ‘super friendly’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
However Maddick did single out other presenters like Holmes and Ruth Lagngsford, as well as Alison Hammond, Vanessa Feltz and Dr Ranj, as being ‘super friendly, helpful and welcoming’.
‘I was flabbergasted by how utterly fake it all was,’ she wrote in the piece.
On her first day, Maddick recalled seeing the demeanour of the two hosts change as the ‘perma-smiles immediately slipped’ and Schofield would ‘often have a face like thunder complaining about minute details that he felt were going wrong or segments he didn’t like’.
‘Holly would often just sit scrolling through her phone,’ she added.
Schofield has given two interviews this week after admitting to an affair with a young colleague (Picture: ITV)
Describing how there was a ‘permeating culture of competitive exhaustion and burn-out’, Maddick said she ‘slept very little’ during her time working on the show, which she called ‘some of the darkest months of my career’.
Adding that she did work with ‘some brilliant, kind and supportive colleagues’ Maddick said that the show had also done some ‘exceptional and important’ campaigning over the years and had ‘undoubtedly brought millions of viewers great comfort, joy and entertainment’.
But after being asked to secure a story ‘about a woman who was breastfeeding her husband to keep their marriage alive’, she decided it was time to leave.
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‘If only senior members of the team had employed their own moral compasses a bit more, then perhaps This Morning, and Phillip Schofield, wouldn’t be in such a sorry state today,’ she concluded her piece.
In a statement to Metro.co.uk, ITV said that ‘as a producer and broadcaster, ITV takes its responsibilities around Duty of Care and Speaking Up seriously and has robust and well-established processes in place’.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
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‘There is a climate of fear.’