Phillip Schofield: ‘I was sacked from This Morning for someone else’s crime’

Phillip Schofield has blamed his paedophile brother for being sacked from This Morning.

Schofield announced he’d resigned from This Morning on May 20, 2024, following weeks of speculation surrounding his fractured friendship with Holly Willoughby. Six days later he left ITV completely with immediate effect after admitting to an affair with a much younger This Morning colleague.

The former presenter, 62, returns to television tonight in a three-part documentary titled Cast Away, which sees Schofield stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Madagascar for 10 days, reflecting on the last 16 months as a ‘cancelled TV presenter’.

During the third and final episode, he claims the negative publicity surrounding his brother Timothy Schofield, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for child abuse on May 19, 2023, was the real reason he was given the boot from the daytime TV show after 21 years.

Schofield said the day before the sentencing, his agent told him: ‘I’m afraid you’ve been let go from This Morning. That’s it, it’s done. You’re not going back on Monday.’

Schofield recalls his agent blaming the bad publicity around his brother for impacting his position on This Morning.

He continued: ‘I’d just been fired because of him, because I was becoming more of a story than the programme. It was better for the show, better for the channel.

‘And I agreed to say I’d resigned because it would be neater for everybody.

‘I was always open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening with my brother.’

‘I was fired for the bad publicity for someone else’s crime,’ he says. ‘The thing is about a week later I blew my own wheels off with everything else because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa.

‘I came clean about my affair but what people don’t realise is I wasn’t fired when I admitted lying – it was before because of someone I used to call brother.’

At the time,  Schofield confirmed his exit from This Morning in a statement that read: ‘Throughout my career in TV – including in the very difficult last few days – I have always done my best to be honourable and kind.

‘I understand that ITV has decided the current situation can’t go on, and I want to do what I can to protect the show that I love.

‘So I have agreed to step down from This Morning with immediate effect, in the hope that the show can move forward to a bright future.’

He went on to share his excitement to presenting the British Soap Awards on ITV which were taking place the following month, but instead he was sacked from ITV completely a week later and dropped from the ceremony.

An ITV spokesperson said at the time: ‘We are deeply disappointed by the admissions of deceit made tonight by Phillip Schofield.

‘The relationships we have with those we work with are based on trust. Phillip made assurances to us which he now acknowledges were untrue and we feel badly let down.

‘We accept his resignation from ITV and therefore can confirm that he will not be appearing on ITV as had previously been stated.’

Schofield takes several swipes at ITV during Cast Away, fuming at being ‘thrown under the bus’ and ruling out ever appearing on I’m A Celebrity! because ‘there are just some channels you never work with again’.

He also makes a clear dig at Holly Willoughby, mocking her statement on This Morning when she asked viewers: ‘Are you ok?’

ITV has been approached for comment on this story.