Phillip Schofield gives his verdict on Ant and Dec after his ITV downfall
Phillip Schofield has given his verdict on Ant and Dec amid his return to TV. Phil, who left ITV under a cloud after admitting an affair with a younger male colleague, spoke out on the Channel 5 documentary Cast Away, which airs Monday.
Clarifying his relationship with Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, amid speculation he could star in I'm A Celebrity later this year, he said: “Although my best mates host it, there are some channels you just won’t work for.
"There are just some people you won’t work for.” Asked if he thought he might end up quitting the island, just off the coast of Madagascar, he replied: “It is inconceivable that I would quit. I don’t quit. I’m fired. But I never quit.”
READ MORE UK tourist travel warning for four countries in October - including Spain and Belgium
His wife, Stephanie Lowe, and daughters, Molly, 31, and Ruby, 28, also appear in the show. In a scene during a family barbecue, Lowe says: “What people don’t realise is that they batter [Phillip] but then there are other people affected.”
Molly said the scandal had made the family closer and called her father “just amazing”. Journalist Siobhan Synnot told Times Radio this was a safe option for Schofield. She said: “He’s going to be in control of the narrative, he’s going to be able to talk to the camera.
"He’s the man who does the filming, it’s prerecorded. He can ask the questions that he’d love to answer, he doesn’t have to ask himself the awkward questions.” Loose Women co-host Nadia Sawalha said she “cringed” when the teaser for the show was released earlier this week.
Speaking on her Coffee Moaning podcast, she said Schofield was “very clever” and “knows how to speak to an audience”. “I have always stood up and against people in positions of power and money and status. I will always stick up for the young person that was swayed by that,” she added.