Phillip Schofield is returning to TV, and he has been opening up about the day it was revealed that he was having an affair with a young staff member on This Morning.
The disgraced TV presenter stepped down from his position on This Morning after his affair with a younger member of staff came to light.
He will return to TV screens Monday night at 9pm on Channel 5 with Cast Away – a show that will see him stranded on a desert island for 10 days with no food or water.
The return has drawn criticism, with many calling it an attempt to try and repair Schofield’s image.
The former This Morning presenter met the young staffer when he was 15, getting him work experience at ITV when he was 19.
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The pair started a relationship when he was 20, and Schofield was married.
LADbible saw the first episode of the new show prior to its release. Talking about his exit from This Morning, Schofield says: “When it came to a sudden very abrupt end, you know one minute you’re there and then the next minute you’re gone, you know what it feels like to be cancelled.
“It’s like the biggest grenade going off in your life, and you know you let people down, you’ve let yourself down, and it was unwise and unprofessional thing to do.
“I will be forever sorry, I screwed up, I made a mistake, and I hurt the people around me.”
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Regarding being cancelled he said: “Cancellation is a funny old thing, because, if you’re cancelled, then that’s it. I assume you’re dead. You can’t do anything. Everything you do is wrong.”
The former presenter referred to the day the news of his affair broke as ‘the worst day of my life’.
He also revealed in the show that, following the backlash, he had come close to ending his own life.
He said he was ‘so so close’, adding: “I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready.
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“[His daughter] Molly said, ‘Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Imagine what would happen.
“'Can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?’ And that was just enough to take a step back from the edge.
“I could have been hospitalised. I had the option to be hospitalised, but then I thought, that’s going to get out. So I just raced to the family home and shut the gates.”
Phillip Schofield: Cast Away airs at 9pm on Monday on Channel 5, and will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same time.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Topics: Phillip Schofield, This Morning, Channel 5, ITV, Mental Health, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin