Phillip Schofield: UK TV presenter admits affair with younger ITV employee - BBC News

the presenter Philip Schofield he's a

British TV presenter has resigned from

ITV after acknowledging that he had an

affair with a younger male colleague at

this morning he has stepped down from

presenting the British soap Awards in a

statement Mr Schofield said he had lied

about the relationship to ITV as well as

his agents lawyers and family he said

the relationship was quote unwise but

not illegal let's go straight to our

reporter Nikki Schiller who joins me

live from The Newsroom Nikki obviously

this has been a story that's been

developing for some time but just bring

us up to date

yes it's probably worth giving you a

little bit of background to start with

the other because

um viewers around the world may not

realize just how big a star Phillip

Schofield is in the United Kingdom he

presented this the this morning program

on ITV which is a Morning Show for over

20 years and he stood down from that

position last weekend and it was about

amongst reports that he had a rift with

his co-presenter Holly Willoughby and

there's been a lot of press speculation

um since then over the last seven days

and now in the last few minutes we've

had a statement from Mr Schofield I'm

going to read you it's quite long but it

is important that we get across all of

the detail that he is saying so it is a

statement for from Mr Schofield and it

was given to the Daily Mail and you'll

understand why when I read through it it

says I am making this statement via the

Daily Mail to whom I've already

apologized personally for misleading

through my lawyer who I also misled

about a story which they wanted to write

about me a few days ago he goes on the

first thing I want to say is I am deeply

sorry for having lied to them and to

many others about a relationship that I

had with someone working on this morning

I did have a consensual on off

relationship with a younger male

colleague at this morning he goes on to

say contrary to speculation whilst I met

the man when I he was a teenager and was

asked to help him to get into television

it was only after he started to work on

the show that it became more than just a

friendship the relationship he says was

unwise but not illegal it is now over he

goes on to say when I chose to come out

I did so entirely for my own well-being

I should say that he came out in 2020 he

adds nobody forced me out neither I nor

anyone else to my knowledge has ever

issued an injunction super or otherwise

about my relationship with this

colleague he was never moved on or

sacked by or because of me in an effort

to protect my ex-colleague I haven't

been truthful about the relationship but

my recent unrelated departure from this

morning fueled speculation and raised

questions which have been impacting him

so for his sake it is important for me

to be honest now he goes on to say I am

painfully conscious that I have lied to

my employers at ITV to my colleagues and

friends to my agents to the media and

therefore the public and most

importantly of all to my family I am so

very very sorry as I am for having been

unfaithful to my wife I have therefore

decided to step down from the British

soap Awards my last public commitment

and I am resigning from ITV with

immediate effect expressing my immense

gratitude to them for the amazing

opportunities that they have given me he

adds I will reflect on what he says my

very bad judgment in both participating

in the relationship and then lying about

it

to protect his privacy I am not naming

this individual and my deepest wish is

that both he and his family can now move

on with their lives free from further

intrusion and that this statement will

enable them to do so

he ends I asked the media now to respect

their privacy they have done nothing

wrong and I ask that their privacy

should be respected now we should also

say he has parted ways with his agents

who he has been with for many years they

have issued a statement it says it is

with the most profound regret that after

35 years of being flawlessly managed by

ym you I've agreed to step down from

their representation with immediate

effect that the quote from Mr Schofield

there was a statement from the agency

saying honesty and integrity are core

values for ymu's whole business defining

everything we do talent management is a

relationship based entirely on trust

this week we have learned new important

information about our client Philip

Schofield these facts contradicted what

Philip had previously told

ymu and that well as well as external

advisors we brought in to support him as

a result we have agreed to park company

with Philip with immediate effect so

there we have it the statement from Mr

Schofield he has resigned from ITV after

admitting to having an affair with a

younger male ITV employee whilst he was

still married Nikki this is a dramatic

uh end to a long career and it's really

been a dramatic few weeks for Phillip

Schofield we saw initially that dispute

between him and his uh co-host that sort

of boiled over and became very public

and then he stepped down from from his

position and of course all of this

speculation as a result of him sort of

moving away from this morning to begin

with and we just are we're looking at

both of them the images of both of them

right now of the uh the the TV hosts

yeah that's right it's Phillip Schofield

and Holly Willoughby and they've been a

partnership or had been a partnership

until last weekend for 13 years on this

morning Philip himself has presented it

for over 20 years but Holly joined him

13 years ago and they have been the

golden couple really of morning

television in the United Kingdom and

then there were these rumors of a rift

now some of it started last year when um

the late Queen Elizabeth

um died here in the United Kingdom and

there were they they went to see her

lying in state and there were reports

that they had so-called queue jumps you

may remember there was a very very long

queue to go and see

um the late Queen lying in state and

there were pictures emerged of them

appearing to jump the queue now ITV said

that wasn't the case and that they were

literally going into film for the public

but that's when the sort of relationship

and the reports of of different things

came out and then we also had Mr

schofield's brother was convicted of a

child sexual assault and that then also

put a rift between them Reports say

because some Reports say that he didn't

tell holly Willoughby his co-host about

that and then we had the dramatic

statement last weekend that he was

resigning for after 20 years on the

program and then we now have this

statement confirming that he had an

affair with a younger male employee at

ITV whilst he was still married and I

have to say there were those stories

that were going around between him

resigning last weekend and now Mickey

thank you so much for bringing us up to

date on that developing story