Featured Image Credit: ITV
Topics: ITV, Phillip Schofield, TV and Film, This Morning, Holly Willoughby
Simon Fearn
Topics: ITV, Phillip Schofield, TV and Film, This Morning, Holly Willoughby
Holly Willoughby has taken to Instagram to slam her former This Morning co-presenter Phillip Schofield after he admitted he'd lied about having an affair with a younger male colleague.
Speculation of bad feeling between Schofield and Willoughby - who had previously been close friends - had reached fever pitch prior to the former's exit from This Morning, and now Willoughby had finally spoken out.
Schofield admitted yesterday (26 May) that the affair had taken place before he'd separated from his wife Stephanie Lowe and come out as gay.
The former ITV presenter said in a statement: "I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
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"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.
"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."
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Schofield said he would no longer present the British Soap Awards as planned and ended his relationship with ITV, also parting company with his talent agency.
And today (27 May), ITV admitted that bosses had investigated rumours about Schofield's relationship with a younger colleague, but both Schofield and his unnamed ex-colleague denied the affair.
The company said: "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.
“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.
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“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.”
Now Holly has had her say on Instagram, writing: “It’s taken time to process yesterday’s news.
"When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not.
"It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie.”