Dermot O’Leary was approached on the street for comment about Phillip Schofield (Picture: Mattpapz / Backgrid/ Rex)
Dermot O’Leary refused to comment on Phillip Schofield’s bombshell confession of an affair.
Schofield resigned from This Morning last week with immediate effect, but said he would stay on for other ITV projects including presenting the British Soap Awards.
However he then admitted to an affair with a young runner, which he insisted was ‘unwise, but not illegal’, and said he had lied to his agent, network and co-workers.
ITV has since confirmed they previously investigated rumours of an affair between Schofield and a male colleague but found nothing.
O’Leary, another presenter of This Morning who stepped in with Alison Hammond this week to replace Schofield and Holly Willoughby who took an early holiday, has now been asked about the new revelations.
He was asked by a Sky News reporter as he walked down the street how he felt about Schofield’s departure.
O’Leary was approached after his radio show on Saturday morning (Picture: Mattpapz / Backgrid)
He declined to comment on Schofield or the revelations following his departure from ITV (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)
To which he responded: ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment, if that’s okay.’
He added apologetically: ‘Sorry, I know you’ve been waiting a long time.
‘But like I said, I don’t think it’s appropriate, especially with no knowledge, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on a story I don’t know.’
Hammond and O’Leary filled in for the usual presenters this week after Schofield’s departure (Picture: ITV)
It comes after ITV said they felt ‘badly let down’ and ‘deeply disappointed’ after Schofield confessed to lying to bosses about his relationship.
They told Metro.co.uk in a statement on Saturday: ‘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.
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‘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 yesterday 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.’
Phillip Schofield statement in full
‘I am making this statement via the Daily Mail to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.
‘The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
‘Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
‘When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody “forced” me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me. In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
‘But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
‘I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.
‘I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.
‘I will reflect on my very bad judgment in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it. To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.
‘I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.’
MORE : This Morning star Josie Gibson posts cryptic message after Phillip Schofield’s bombshell confession
The presenter was approached by a reporter on the street.
