The latest Phillip Schofield news has seen presenter Richard Madeley wade in on his “brutal” exit from ITV.
Richard has remained a regular face on ITV over the years. From 1988 until 2001, he presented This Morning alongside his wife Judy Finnigan. For the following eight years, the married couple hosted their own daytime chat show, Richard and Judy.
In recent years, Judy’s television career has taken a backseat while Richard currently hosts Good Morning Britain. After many years of working on the same network as Phillip, Richard has now shared his thoughts on how he has been treated.
Phillip Schofield latest: Richard Madeley declares ‘it seemed a pretty savage outcome’
Earlier this year, Phillip left ITV altogether after it was revealed that he had an affair with a much younger colleague. Originally denying the claims, he later admitted he had been lying to ITV and his family about the affair.
With a lot of criticism surrounding the 61-year-old presenter, Richard told The Sun that he felt “very sorry for Phillip”.
Seemingly risking the wrath of ITV, he said: “It seemed a pretty savage outcome after 21 years [in the job]. It seemed quite brutal to be honest.”
Explaining that he “took a paternal interest in it”, Richard admitted that he is still in contact with Phillip after the scandal. “I kept in touch, told him to take it easy and that it’ll be all right. He agreed. All things pass in the end. We’ve all been through terrible experiences.”
However, he noted that “the worst ones are the ones that come out of a clear blue sky and you don’t see coming”.
‘Thank God Twitter wasn’t around then’
In the same interview with his daughter Chloe, the pair mutually agreed that people today aren’t as forgiving today as they were during Richard’s heyday.
“No one can ever say they’ve never made a mistake. Humans now, because of social media and everybody wanting to have a voice, we’ve started to judge each other to such a degree that it’s hugely detrimental to society, our psychology and our health. I think we need to stop,” Chloe said.
Chloe and Richard have had their fair share of mistakes over the years. After drinking two cocktails in 2009 and getting behind the wheel, Chloe was banned from driving for 20 months. In 1994, Richard was arrested after forgetting to pay for bottles of alcohol at a supermarket.
He was presenting This Morning with his wife Judy at the time. Now, Richard has stated he is grateful that social media didn’t exist then or he’d have been cancelled.
Read more: GMB hit by hundreds of Ofcom complaints over Richard Madeley’s ’embarrassing’ slavery rant
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