Phillip Schofield has explained how his brother’s trial affected his This Morning job (Picture: ITV/ PA)
Phillip Schofield has said he was asked to step down from This Morning after the attention during his brother’s criminal trial became ‘too loud’.
Back in March, Timothy Schofield faced court, and was eventually found guilty, for sexually abusing a teenage boy.
At the time Phillip, 61, took pre-planned leave from his programme to attend the trial and also appear as a witness.
However, he’s now said that it was during this time he was told he would need to step down from his TV role, which he had held for 21 years.
‘Our family thing was always to buy fish and chips and go and sit on the headland,’ he said.
‘I picked my mum up and she went in to get the fish and chips and while she was getting it my phone rang.
‘It was my then manager, saying, “Mate, I’m so sorry, it has become too loud for ITV. You will have to step down from This Morning”,’ he added when speaking to The Sun.
Phillip had hosted the programme alongside Holly Willoughby since 2009 (Picture: Ken McKay/ ITV/ Shutterstock)
Recalling having to tell his mother about the news, Phillip said she was left ‘devastated’.
‘She said to me before I arrived, “You’re not coming down with any bad news are you?”,’ he said,
‘She sat in the car and she was all happy to see me. Then she said, “Oh your face has changed”.
‘I said, “Let’s go on to the headland”. And I had to tell her. She (was) devastated.’
Phillip acted as a witness in his brother’s criminal trial (Picture: Phillip Schofield/ Instagram)
Speaking more about his brother’s offending, Phillip insisted he did ‘everything he could’ during the investigation.
He said that he worked ‘incredibly closely’ with police throughout the investigation.
Timothy Schofield, 54, was convicted in April of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child.
He was jailed in May for 12 years.
Phillip has given two tell-all interviews this week (Picture: BBC)
In a statement released by his lawyer after his brother’s guilty verdict, Phillip said: ‘My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. I hope that their privacy will now be respected.’
‘If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my brother, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family.
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‘These are despicable crimes and I welcome the guilty verdicts. As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.’
Late last month Phillip admitted to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a young colleague and admitted lying about the nature of their affair to his bosses and colleagues.
However, he has strongly denied accusations of grooming.
Metro.co.uk has contacted ITV for comment.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
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