Phillip Schofield sips on champagne at engagement party as suspense builds around TV comeback

After a year of keeping a low profile, Phillip Schofield is back in the public eye ahead of his highly intriguing TV comeback.

The former This Morning host has been pictured this weekend with friends, toasting to a pal’s engagement at a party alongside wife Stephanie Lowe.

Schofield, 62, appeared in good spirits as he sipped from a champagne glass at a London pub last night, surrounded by heart-shaped balloons.

Dressed in a smart ensemble of a salmon pink shirt and navy blazer, the ex-ITV star was seen gesticulating while engrossed in conversation.

He was later pictured laughing while playing with a dog before heading home in a taxi.

Schofield’s night out with Lowe comes after he admitted to, as he described it, ‘an unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger male runner on the daytime show which, despite making headlines for months, did not end his marriage.

He married Lowe in 1993, and they share two daughters: Molly, born in 1993, and Ruby, born in 1996.

The three have remained close since Schofield’s admission, with his children recently expressing support for their father’s new project.

Airing from tomorrow night on Channel 5, Cast Away documents Schofield’s summer in which he spent 10 days on a deserted island in Madagascar, fending for himself.

It’s his first appearance on screens since he quit presenting last year, and offers the opportunity for the once-revered TV star to share his version of events and open up about the impact of his scandal.

Previews of the three-parter have already suggested Cast Away will make for emotional viewing, as Schofield not only delves into his extinct relationships with former colleagues, but also how his demise destroyed his mental health.

This included revealing he had ‘everything in place’ for a suicide attempt while feeling at his lowest, with his family being the people to pull him out.

Unsurprisingly, Schofield refers to the exposé of his affair as ‘the worst day of his life’, recalling how he became unwell as media attention into his personal life grew beyond control.

‘A year ago, I got so, so close,’ he says in the footage, filmed by himself.

‘I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly that was looking after me, Molly and Ruby both looking after me at the time. Molly said, “Do you know what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you actually imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?”

‘And that was just enough to take a step back from the edge.’

Schofield also appears to make digs at old co-stars, including Holly Willoughby, with whom he presented This Morning and Dancing On Ice for years.

In a not-so-subtle reference to Willoughby’s television return after her own break in light of Schofield’s exit, he quotes her now infamous address.

Uttering the three words that will seemingly follow her forever in her first public statement on matters last May, she asked viewers directly: ‘Are you ok?’

In Cast Away, in footage of him sitting around the dinner table, Schofield quite clearly mocks Holly, cackling with wife Lowe and their two daughters: ‘If you’re ok then we’re ok and I’m ok. Are you ok?’

Other moments include Schofield revealing he refused to be hospitalised at his lowest point, fearing it would become public knowledge, and also him shutting down speculation that he’ll appear on any other reality shows.

Referring to I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, hosted by Ant and Dec, Schofield ripped into ITV, making it clear that bridge has been burned.

‘There are some channels you won’t work for, there are some people you just won’t work for,’ he says.

Millions are expected to tune into Cast Away next week, with a press release branding it ‘an authentic and intense physical and mental challenge, Phillip is left alone with only a handful of cameras to document his own experience.’

‘This solitary island existence presents an opportunity for Phillip to confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature and provides the time to battle within his own mind as he explores his own controversial story,’ it added.

And Schofield added: ‘I’ve recently had a lot of time to think about my life, what went right and what went wrong, but I’ve always had the safe arms of friends and family wrapped around me.

‘This time it’s just me, no ‘phone, no comforts, no crew and only lip balm as a luxury.’

He also spoke about ‘foraging and fending’ for himself in ‘the wild’ like ‘Robinson Crusoe’ or ‘Tom Hanks’ Wilson’.