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Phillip Schofield has revealed he is still on ‘friendly’ terms with the runner he had an affair with on This Morning.
Schofield, 61, announced his exit from the daytime programme after more than 20 years, following rumours that he and Willoughby, 42, were ‘barely speaking’ behind the scenes and that their relationship had cooled.
Days later, he sensationally resigned from all his ITV projects including hosting the British Soap Awards after revealing that he had an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger colleague on This Morning while still with his wife Stephanie Lowe.
The young runner, who has not been named, was 15 when they met, with Schofield saying the affair began after he turned 18.
The former Dancing On Ice host appeared on a one-off BBC interview and was questioned by Amol Rajan about the relationship and whether they are still in touch.
Speaking about the runner, Schofield said: ‘We’ve stayed mates. We’re still mates. We still stay friendly.’
Phillip Schofield was interviewed by Amol Rajan about the affair (Picture: BBC)
Rajan also asked him the last time he was in contact with the young man and Schofield replied it was when he hired a lawyer for him recently.
‘He needed independent support,’ Schofield continued. ‘So that was the last time.’
Rajan asked: ‘So that was a few weeks ago?’
Schofield replied: ‘Yeah, a couple of weeks.’
Schofield quit ITV after admitting to having an affair with a This Morning runner (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)
The former The Cube presenter described his former lover as an ‘innocent person’ who ‘didn’t do anything wrong, who is vulnerable and probably feels how I do.’
According to the Daily Mail, sources have claimed the runner was given a financial settlement from the broadcaster, which ITV has reportedly refused on numerous occasions to comment on or deny.
An insider reportedly claimed someone senior at ITV must have known about the payment as it required ‘people of some seniority’ to sign it off.
Phillip Schofield’s tell-all interview: The key points
Phillip Schofield bared all in interviews with The Sun and BBC amid the fallout of confessing to an affair with a This Morning runner. Here is what he said:
‘I did not groom him’
Schofield insists he is not a groomer, saying that while he met the former colleague while he was a teenager, their interactions were innocent and only became sexual when the runner was around 20/21 years old.
He said it never felt like an ‘abuse of power’ because they were ‘mates’.
The affair began in 2017
He has said that the affair began after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
‘It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates,’ he insisted. ‘It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement.’
His wife is ‘very, very angry’
The affair took place while Schofield was married to wife Stephanie Lowe, with whom he shares two daughters.
On the moment he told his wife, 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.’
Schofield still wears his wedding ring, but explained that he and Stephanie are ‘separated’.
His daughters saved his life
Schofield confessed to feeling suicidal amid the fallout of his affair and the ‘relentless’ media attention.
His two daughters – Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27 – have been ‘afraid’ to leave his side and warned him: ‘Don’t you dare do this on our watch.’
‘If it hadn’t been for my girls last week, I wouldn’t be here.’
He has apologised to Holly Willoughby
After rumours of a fallout between the pair and after Holly Willoughby said she was lied to by Schofield after asking him about his affair, he has apologised to his former co-presenter.
He said: ‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, “I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.’
He will ‘die sorry’ to the runner he had the affair with
‘I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work. I think my greatest apology must go to him. 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.’
The colleague has not been named in the press for his privacy.
No pay-offs
Schofield denied allegations that the runner received hush money from ITV, saying the promotion he got wasn’t to ‘move him on’ but because of his own talents.
He also insisted that the young man did not sign an NDA preventing him from speaking out.
Comparing age gap backlash to ‘homophobia’
‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world,’ he said of age differences.
‘Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world. There shouldn’t be a difference. This is where homophobia comes in.’
Eamonn Holmes is an ‘angry’ man
After Eamonn Holmes made a series of strong allegations against Schofield, he said the Irish TV presenter is just ‘angry’ he’s not on This Morning anymore.
He also continuously denied that This Morning is ‘toxic’.
Doesn’t think he’ll work in TV again
Schofield said it ‘breaks [my] heart’ to talk about TV in the past tense, but he doesn’t see a way back for him.
‘I do not think I will be able to walk down a street ever again. It is like everybody knows.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he said frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
Schofield said he was ‘still mates’ with the runner who reportedly now works in a pub (Picture: ITV)
However, some sources report that it was a redundancy payout, rather than linked to the relationship.
A friend of the young man told the Telegraph he no longer worked in television and was pulling pints in a pub.
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‘He should be having a good career in television now, but because of this he’s not,’ they added.
Phillip Schofield: The Interview is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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MORE : Phillip Schofield ‘not sure’ Holly Willoughby questioned him over affair with young lover
Schofield said the runner was ‘innocent’ and ‘vulnerable.’