PHILLIP Schofield has vowed to never work in daytime television again – after revealing he was ‘axed’ from This Morning rather than quiting.
The 62-year-old talked openly about being ‘thrown under a bus’ by former colleagues at ITV.
Last year Phil admitted to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a young runner on This Morning.
His deceit subsequently led to his departure from the show he had fronted with Holly Willoughby, before eventually quitting ITV altogether.
And now Phil has vowed never to return to another daytime sofa again.
Speaking on Cast Away, he said: “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.
“And there are some people I won’t work for again. Some people I won’t work with again.
“I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly that you get to the point where you think ‘I don’t want to do it anymore’.”
Phil also revealed how he didn’t quit This Morning – but rather sacked by bosses.
Meanwhile, during the second part of his Channel 5 show, Schofe threatened to expose his former colleagues.
Speaking to the camera, he said: “People just went, who I thought were my friends and they just went and that’s like ‘what the hell’.”
He continued: “I have been chucked under a bus, and I could drive the same bus over so many people but I’m not that sort of person, I never have been.”
“But if I sit down with a camera and the light’s going who knows what I’ll say.”
By Rod McPhee
OVER three nights – and three hour-long episodes – Phillip Schofield has been bearing his soul in new Channel 5 show Cast Away.
And it’s basically a chance for the former This Morning host to explain the circumstances that saw him leave the show last year.
To put it mildly, he left under something of a cloud, admitting he’d had a fling with a much younger runner on the programme. But in the C5 show he presents his own versions of events – one which is at odds with the narrative that emerged at the time.
He was portrayed as a man who’d had an “unwise” affair, who’d resigned as a result and had let many of his colleagues down.
But in Cast Away Philip insists he was fired by ITV and not for the affair, but because of the bad publicity that surrounded the crimes of his paedophile brother. He summed it up best when he claimed he’d been “pushed under a bus.”
After watching Cast Away what you’re left with is something rather confusing, however.
Did Philip think he’d done something wrong by having the fling with the runner, or not? For example, he said he wouldn’t have been slammed for it quite so much if it were a heterosexual fling.
He said he: “would have received a pat on the back for having an affair with a woman.” This infers that the only thing wrong with it was that it was a same sex fling. So why does he also say: “I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
The answer, I suspect, is that the whole affair was a murky business. There were so many blurred lines around appropriateness, professionalism and honesty.
The only firm conclusion you can draw from the show is that Phillip himself isn’t ENTIRELY sure to what extent He was guilty of wrongdoing.
Amid the confusion, what will the viewing public think? I suspect that this will leave those who disliked Phillip to feel even more suspicious of him.
Those who backed him, will feel reassured too. But those who still aren’t sure what to think will be none-the-wiser – and I’m not sure if that’s what Phillip would have wanted.
