Vanessa Feltz has addressed her former This Morning co-star and ‘good friend’ Phillip Schofield’s huge return to television, warning it could be a ‘risk’.
After 16 months of laying low since quitting the ITV programme and confessing his ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair, Schofield is returning to the limelight.
The 62-year-old has vowed to ‘tell my side of the story’ and ‘say whatever I want about whatever I want,’ while he faces isolation for ten days on Cast Away.
‘My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it,’ he announced, adding: ‘I know what I did was unwise, but is it enough to absolutely destroy someone?’
Vanessa, 62, has now admitted she thinks his reality TV stint could be a ‘risk’, but is throwing her support behind him.
The Celebs Go Dating star told Metro.co.uk: ‘I just think whatever he does to make him feel better, I wish him all the luck in the world.
‘Obviously I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know how he copes in isolation for all those days, and whether it turns out to be a good thing or a bad thing.
‘Any reality TV show anyone does is a risk, that’s the whole point, you could come out brilliantly and everyone could fall in love with you and you could impress them to the max.’
She went on: ‘But he is a very seasoned TV professional, and I really hope that it’s the right thing for him, and it does him the power of good, that he personally enjoys it and that the viewers enjoy it and that it makes him feel better and it makes everybody feel better. That’s what I would like. I’d like it to be a success.’
Vanessa added that she had ‘no idea’ that Schofield would be returning to screens on the Channel 5 programme, after he’d been rumoured for the likes of Celebrity Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity.
However, since the news broke, she hasn’t reached out to him, nor does she plan to.
‘I just think, don’t jump on the band wagon of messaging, and I don’t like it when when people do that to me, and it happens to me a lot,’ she told us.
‘When there’s a story about me in the media, suddenly everybody that I haven’t heard from for ages jumps in and says something, and you know they’re only doing it because they want to tell their friend, “I spoke to Vanessa, and she says this, or she says that, or she is feeling well or not feeling well,” or whatever it is, and I always think, “Oh, god come on, be a bit more subtle than that.”
‘So no, I haven’t messaged because what would I message? I mean, obviously he knows I wish him well, we’re good friends.’
Vanessa joined the This Morning team in 1992, with Schofield joining ten years later.
In the last year, since his ITV exit, the programme has undergone huge changes, with Holly Willoughby also leaving and Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard taking over their roles.
Talking about the changes that have occurred at This Morning since May 2023, Vanessa said: ‘It’s obviously been sad to lose [Holly and Phil], because obviously when you work with people for a long time, they become your friends. I’m very good friends with Holly, I love her to pieces and I loved working with her, obviously, because I love her, and I like working with Phillip.
‘I was there on his very first day on This Morning, and when they showed the footage on his 20 year anniversary there I was sitting on the sofa about a yard away from him on the very first of his day broadcasting.
‘So I’ve been there a very long time and when people that you’ve worked with leave it’s always sad, just like it would be working in any office with long-term work mates that you like. So that was a shame.’
She added that she lovesTipping Point host Ben, having known him for years, and goes back ‘an even longer way’ with Cat.
‘It’s a pleasure working with them, they’re lovely, I love that show, I’ve been on it since 1992 and I think the show is bigger than the sum of its parts.
‘It’s such a great show, it’s so interesting. I’ve been on it, as I say, since 1992 and every time I’m on it, every single time, my head is swivelling around to the next thing that’s about to come up, whether it’s the fashion segment or whether it’s the travel segment, or the cooking.
‘So it’s a lovely atmosphere, and I would be absolutely devastated if anything happened to that show.’
‘I’m glad that it’s in the capable hands of Ben and Cat and I think it’s great,’ she added.
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Vanessa was speaking to Metro.co.uk on behalf of Heart Bingo.