Phillip Schofield has given a warts and all interview, addressing much of the news and speculation that’s circulated since he admitted to an affair with a young runner from This Morning.
In a long exclusive with The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie, the disgraced TV host revealed wife Steph’s angry reaction, how Holly Willoughby is no longer speaking to him and how he has tried to help his ex ‘lover’.
He also opened up on the source of the scandal’s beginnings.
‘I did not groom him’
Apparently visibly shaken and broken, he went into detail about how the “unwise but not illegal’ relationship with the man, then aged 20, began – insisting it was not grooming.
“I did not, I did not (groom him),” Schofield said. “There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way (an abuse of power) because we’d become mates. But of course I understand that there will be massive judgment.”
He added: “Then one day something happened that just changed it. That is the moment I look back on, and regret so deeply.
“It was in my dressing room in 2017, it was a consensual moment, it was mutual. Not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates.
‘Struggling with sexuality’
“It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement. I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.
“But over a period of time it happened maybe five or six times. We just didn’t think anyone knew, there was no lying, we thought, stupidly, that nobody knew.”
Schofield added that he knows there is no excuse but that he was unprofessional just one time in his showbiz career that’s spanned over 40 years.
The former ITV presenter had been lying low this week, as it was announced that his former channel is now facing an investigation into these ‘unwise’ goings-on at This Morning.
Meanwhile, Schofield’s co-host Holly Willoughby – who is set to return to the sofa on Monday, June 5 – has flown to Portugal with family, including her mother and sister.
Read more: All the mega-bucks deals Schofield has lost
Holly’s hopped it
Last weekend, Holly issued a statement insisting that her former best friend had lied to her about the relationship with the runner. ITV reiterated this and Schofield has now claimed that she was in the dark.
Their relationship is in tatters, but the 61-year-old says he understands why Holly, 42, is now transmitting radio silence.
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