Eamonn Holmes slams Phillip Schofield in explosive on-air rant and gloats he's 'proud to have thrown him under the bus'

Eamonn Holmes poke of his 'pride' after 'throwing him under the bus'
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Eamonn Holmes says Phillip Schofield "deserves to be in exile" in an explosive on-air rant ahead of the embattled star's TV comeback and says he is "proud to have thrown him under the bus".

The GB News presenter didn't hold back in his criticism of the 62-year-old who will appear in a new Channel 5 show starting tonight (September 30). It is his first appearance on a TV series since he left ITV in May 2023 after he admitted to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.

The three-part Cast Away series sees Schofield marooned on a tropical island off the coast of Madagascar with a handful of cameras, with the first episode showing his shelter nearly being blown off on the first night, as well him being lost at night and looking for crabs to eat. Schofield says the "utter betrayal" by his television colleagues has made him never want to be a daytime presenter again and claims he was "chucked under a bus".

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Speaking on today's GB News, former This Morning star Eamonn didn't hold back in his opinion about Phillip's return to TV screens. He said: "I believe he is where he deserves to be," before adding: "I am one of the people who threw him under the bus, I am very proud to have done it."

Eamonn went on: "This man is addicted to fame. Absolutely addicted to fame."

Schofield's daughter hopes that her father taking part in the new show will allow him to be forgiven for his “mistake” of having an affair with a younger male colleague. The second episode of Phillip Schofield: Cast Away showed extended scenes of him and his wife Stephanie Lowe, and daughters, Ruby and Molly, having a barbecue before he left for a tropical island off the coast of Madagascar.

His family all tell him that he will be “amazing” at lighting fires at night to cook his food, and to warm himself. To camera, Molly also says: “I would love people to understand what’s actually happened, and forgive him for a mistake.”

Schofield also says he wishes he had not had the affair, as he “made life tough for the people that I love the most”, and later says that he does not think he could say “sorry any more”.

“I apologised to people that I hadn’t actually spoke to, and no-one could be more sorry than me,” he says.

Eamonn Holmes slams Phillip Schofield in explosive on-air rant
Eamonn Holmes slams Phillip Schofield in explosive on-air rant

When he resigned more than a year ago, he denied that he had been “forced out” of the ITV daytime programme, and said he was “so very, very sorry” for lying to the channel, his colleagues, wife and friends. However, on the fourth day on the small island of Nosy Ankarea, off the coast of Madagascar, Schofield claims he was “chucked under a bus”, and added that he could do the same to others, but he is “not that sort of person”.

On the second episode, he also says he had expected to “die on live television at 93”, but now he does not think he wants to “do it any more”, as he has been “hurt so badly” by being a presenter, and “some of the people on that sort of telly”. Schofield says that when he started at the BBC as a booking clerk at 19, he first was able to go to Television Centre, where ITV’s This Morning was later filmed, and he “loved being there”.

He added: “When what happened to me happened to me, it screwed up my favourite building in the world, and it pretty well blew away all those happy memories, and suddenly the place became hostile to me, and that was heartbreaking. And the people who did it to me know, they know how important that building was to me.

“They know that when you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it. Brand, ambition is not good enough. It’s not a good enough reason to throw someone under a bus.”

The 62-year-old former TV presenter is set to share his side of the story for the first time on Phillip Schofield: Cast Away
The 62-year-old former TV presenter is set to share his side of the story for the first time on Phillip Schofield: Cast Away

He added that “people can be so fake with you when it’s all going well, and suddenly utter, utter betrayal”. “When the tidal wave washed through and it washed everybody away,” he added.

“The ones that are still standing. They’re the ones that matter. And I thought: ‘How many friends do you need? I don’t need 200 fake friends’. I’ve got, what? Ten, 15 friends that I would die for, they would die for me.”

He also claims the relationship would not have mattered if he was not gay, and suggested an affair with a woman would have meant a “pat on the back”. Schofield said: “I think another TV presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing, difference is heterosexual, it’s not an unusual thing in the gay world, for there to be a difference in age groups.”

Phillip Schofield: Cast Away begins at 9pm on Monday on Channel 5, and will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same time.

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