Phillip Schofield brands three ITV ex-colleagues ‘sh***’ and says there was ‘no loyalty’
Phillip Schofield has launched a furious tirade against three unnamed ex-colleagues at ITV, branding two ‘cowards’ and another ‘brand orientated’ after his affair was exposed
Phillip Schofield blasts a trio of people at ITV as “three sh*ts” – in an angry attack where he claims there was no loyalty for him at the channel.
Schofield quit the channel in May 2023 after it emerged he had been having an affair with a younger male staff member on This Morning, something he had previously denied. But there is furious anger reserved for execs and possibly for his co-host Holly Willoughby who he is understood to no longer be friends with.
Sat by the fire after a few days on a remote island filming his new Channel 5 series, Schofield starts by saying 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.”
Pausing to put more wood on the fire and seemingly enjoying expressing his true feelings, he then turns up the heat and says: “I was just thinking there as I was collecting wood. There are only three sh*ts. One of them is a coward who never stepped up in queue gate. One of them is a coward because they never stepped up when I was being battered by one journalist….and the other one is just brand orientated. Not what you expect, not what you think you’re going to get. When it all came to a sudden and very abrupt end, questions were asked about our toxic environment in parliament!”
Phillip Schofield does some soul searching on the remote island (
Image:
PA)
He insisted there were a few “tricky people” but the toxicity was exaggerated. Continuing with his complaints he added: “When you’ve given so much to somewhere and been so loyal, to have absolutely no loyalty shown to you. I know what I did was unwise, not sensible. But is it enough to absolutely destroy someone? Literally destroy them.”
Schofield appears to be livid that he was not supported more when he and Holly were criticised when they visited the late Queen Elizabeth II’s lying in state without queuing. They used media passes and received criticism in some quarters. They were defended by the chief executive of ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall, who stressed the pair had been attending as members of the media to film a segment for This Morning.
When he was dropped by his talent agency YMU on the same day he resigned from ITV after more than three decades with the company, he says he was “suicidal”. Schofield added: “They sent me what looked like a cut and pasted text, (saying) ‘this time we’ll have to let you go’.”
The presenter says he knows people will claim he is having a “mad rant”, but he does not “care any more” as he has “nothing to lose”. In another scene whilst fishing on the island, he could be referring to Holly again when he says: “People just went who I thought were my friends and they just went. And that’s like ‘what the hell?’.”
Schofield and Holly worked side by side for 14 years on This Morning but have not been seen together since he left the show or shared comments or photos on social media, a sharp contrast to their previous behaviour where they would regularly go out and eat at each other’s houses.
Schofield appears to take a swipe at his former This Morning co-star (
Image:
PA)
He insists he doesn’t need “200 fake friends” possibly referring to many people within the TV industry who no longer speak to him and now has 10-15 friends he “would die for”. Warming to the attack on old friends and acquaintances at ITV, Schofield went on to say he doesn’t care what the reaction is when people view the programme.
He adds: “The good thing is, when you do a programme like this and you do it just for yourself, you have nothing to lose. They’ve taken pretty much everything. Reputation, dignity, legacy, everything away. I’m not bleating Im getting it off my chest. And I’ve said my piece. Any anyone who’s bitter about that, honestly you can f**k off cause I don’t give a sh*t. I quit. Mic drop.”
The attack, which could also be aimed at execs from This Morning or ITV Daytime who did not support him, comes in episode two of the series of Phillip Schofield : Cast Away and follows scenes in the opening show where he also mocked Holly. He asked his family “If you’re okay, then we’re okay and I’m Okay. Are you okay?” Holly famously asked this question ‘Are you OK’ of viewers after Schofield quit This Morning, which some people found a cringey intro to the show..
Many people in the TV industry believe this Channel 5 series is Schofield’s attempt to return to television, where he had worked for four decades. But he insists whilst on the island that it is not his plan to be back, certainly not on a daytime TV show like This Morning anyway.
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He states: “You expect your life to follow a path? I honestly thought, you know. I’m going to die on live television, hopefully at 93. But then you know it. It’s gone. And it’s not the way you planned it to be. It’s not the life you expected.” He adds: “Look I love telly. I’ve got telly in my bones but I won’t sit on a sofa again. I’m not going to do that again. There are people I won’t work with again. Some people I won’t work with again. I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly, that you get to a point where you think ‘I don’t want to do it anymore’.”
In a lighter moment on the show he says often on family holidays he would build chairs on the beach out of sand and he tried to create one of his desert island. But something goes slightly wrong with the design and laughing he says it looks more like a grave. He says: Maybe this is what retirement feels like? And I absolutely refuse to you know sit in a rocking chair and do nothing. I want to explore. Maybe getting to this stage in your life is about setting new challenges.” He adds: “Things didn’t turn out the way you thought they might. So you have got to look elsewhere.”
The experience gets even better for him when he successfully catches fish and crabs and full of energy climbs to the highest point on the island. He becomes tearful at the top of Ankarea mountain. Reflecting on the moment he says: “When anyone says to me where’s the favourite place you have ever been? It will never change, from now on – it’s this!”
* Phillip Schofield: Cast Away begins airs at 9pm on Monday on Channel 5, and will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same time.
