Phillip Schofield had secret meeting with ITV months ago where he 'demanded apology'

Phil Schofield's secret meeting with ITV months ago where he 'demanded apology'
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Phillip Schofield had a secret meeting with ITV bosses months ago - and made a huge demand. The ITV star, who quit the channel in disgrace in the wake of his affair with a younger male colleague, sparked controversy with his Channel 5 documentary Cast Away.

Schofe will return to TV tomorrow (Monday September 30) in the new real-life documentary, which sees him marooned on a Madagascar island. In the spring Schofield’s former agency, YMU, asked for a meeting between ITV bosses and Schofield’s new representatives.

The meeting was attended by Paul Worsley, the boss of YMU, which had dropped Schofield when the scandal broke, and the presenter’s elder daughter, Molly Lowe. Worsley and the presenter’s daughter are understood to have expressed how unfair they felt the treatment of her father had been, asked if he was “blacklisted” by ITV, and requested that the company apologise privately to him.

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“He has caused ITV enormous pain,” said the channel insider. “There were days and days of headlines, and then eventually a select committee in which [chief executive] Dame Carolyn McCall and [director of television] Kevin Lygo were grilled by MPs. Phillip had repeatedly told execs — looking them in the eye — that he was not having an affair, always denying it when asked.”

“He can’t see that the 50-something lead presenter of a show shouldn’t be having a relationship with a runner, whatever their sex,” another said. “He has kept saying ‘it was unwise but not illegal’ — it’s not about that, it’s about the power discrepancy.”

“This Morning is happier without him,” says one former employee. “You always felt like you were walking on eggshells where he was there. He had an almost oppressive hold on the show.” Speaking on his new Channel 5 series, Schofield said that he loved going to BBC's Television Centre when he was a teenager, which became the site where ITV filmed This Morning.

He said that his love for the building had been tainted by what happened to him when he quit.