Phillip Schofield has blamed his brother for his departure from ITV, saying he was “fired for someone else’s crime”.
In the final episode of Channel 5’s Phillip Schofield: Cast Away, the 62-year-old former This Morning presenter said he had always been “open and honest with everyone at work about what was happening” with his 54-year-old brother, Timothy, who was convicted in April 2023 of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child.
On the show he said he refused to “name and refused to acknowledge” his brother, who he claimed he had “absolutely no qualms whatsoever in shopping” to police. “Even though they knew all of the facts the papers painted me out to be some sort of complicit agent,” he said. “That was when my world started to collapse. My poor mum, [I] had to tell her about that member of the family. To break that to your mother is tough.
“And I had to go through everything with the hierarchy at ITV. The full entire story so that they knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. The full story.”
Schofield said the day before his brother’s sentencing his agent called him to tell him that he was being “let go from This Morning … It’s done. You’re not going back on Monday”, claiming the decision was because of “the publicity”.
He added: “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.
“And the thing is about a week later, I blew my own wheels off with everything else [his affair], because I thought the only way to even begin to put this right for everybody is to do a full mea culpa.”
Schofield admitted to a secret affair with a younger male colleague at ITV, but strongly denies accusations of grooming.
Despite the claims on the Channel 5 show that he was dropped from This Morning, when leaving the programme more than a year ago Schofield said he had resigned. At the time he denied being “forced out”, and said he was “so very, very sorry” for lying to ITV, his colleagues, wife and friends.
An external review, carried out by Jane Mulcahy KC on behalf of ITV found the channel made “considerable efforts” to find out the truth about an alleged affair between Schofield and a show runner in 2019, but was not able to find evidence about the rumours.
Schofield “reluctantly declined” to take part in the investigation because of the “risk to his health”, the report in December 2023 said.
Mulcahy said that for the period she reviewed, she could not find evidence of a “toxic” culture, and urged ITV to help junior employees who think speaking out will have a “detrimental impact on their careers”.
At the end of the Channel 5 programme, Schofield said he was undecided on whether he would return to presenting.
Phillip Schofield: Cast Away airs for three nights from Monday at 9pm on Channel 5, and is available to stream on My5. ITV has been contacted for comment.