Phillip Schofield Exclusive: "I'm Not A Groomer" Says ITV Star And Apologises to Holly Willoughby

so to our top story tonight which is

that breaking news on the Scandal that

is completely engulfing ITV the disgrace

this morning presenter Philip Schofield

has spoken for the first time about his

affair with a much younger colleague

there is a front page of tomorrow's sun

he has told that newspaper tonight that

he is utterly broken and ashamed but he

did not groom him

for the past two weeks Philip Schofield

has been in hiding since the Scandal

break which sort of admit to cheating on

his wife and lying repeatedly to family

friends and his ITV colleagues including

his co-presenter Holly well Scofield

insisted this I know the photos of us

circulating on Twitter look shocking but

I am not a groomer I absolutely know

there is no question I did a bad thing I

was unprofessional one time in a 41 year

career he goes on to say I did a bad

thing I will die sorry I brought the

greatest misery into his totally

innocent life well Scofield also

revealed he's still good friends with

the ex-show runner who is not being

named and says their 30-year age Gap

romance only started once the man was 20

years old after revealing that it

started backstage in his dressing room

after one of this morning's shows well

let's have a clip in full now precisely

popular Schofield has told the Sun

last time we had a conversation was when

I texted Holly and said

don't reply this is after the statement

last week don't reply you're probably

not allowed to

but I am deeply deeply sorry that I lied

to you

um

and I am

it was the one Secret in our sanctuary

that was never mentioned

okay pretty bombshell stuff let's bring

Thursday night's first edition panel for

their reaction with me tonight Economist

Miata fambulay and the conservative peer

and the former culture Minister Lord Ed

Daisy Ed Miata uh good to see you and

let me come to you first as it happens

you are indeed a former culture Minister

longer serving former culture Minister

television certainly came under your

remit

obviously pretty interesting news that

Philips covert has decided to speak it

clearly feels he's got a lot to say your

reaction and first up

what does this change if anything

I there are two narratives going on here

one is as it were kind of to put it very

crudely and it may sound a bit uh

facetious given the seriousness of the

issue and and the lives that have been

really badly affected by this Scandal uh

is it's a crisis PR battle and each side

is where is getting their story out to a

certain extent idv has got a story out

saying it's all Phillip schofield's

fault Phillip Schofield is now fighting

back with a long interview in the Sun

but the other story in the story where

as it were the politicians as it were

might have a role to play is ITV and as

you said it in your opening you know

this is a crisis that has engulfed ITV

this morning they announced an inquiry

led by a very senior Barrister Janet

Mulcahy who is going to look at into

what has happened and the question that

lies behind any issue like this when it

affects a business and it's almost

irrelevant ITV is a media business

except for the fact that it's such a

high profile story is who knew what when

and which senior people knew what when

and where will this stop where will the

buck stop as this emerges because from

what I gather and obviously everyone is

talking about the story you know lots of

people knew about this for many years

and there's an age-old narrative that

you protect as it were your talent the

person who's bringing in your viewers

and did they do that at the expense of a

vulnerable young man so all those

questions have to be answered and it's

interesting as well ITV wrote to ofcom

which is the media regulator and to the

Secretary of State for culture ITV is

going in front of a select committee in

Parliament next week by coincidence but

it's relevant because there's a very big

Media bill going through Parliament and

ITV is a public service broadcaster it

is regulated by ofcom via Parliament so

things that damage itv's reputation and

as it were its corporate standing are

serious and are to a certain extent

political questions in answer to those

viewers who maybe say why on Earth would

MPS even bother to get involved in this

issue so that is what is happening at

the moment and how ITV comes through

that will be a story I think that will

develop over the next few days and weeks

yeah and uh in fact Kelly McCall itv's

chief executive is coming back in front

of the snake committee for her own

hearing and precisive subject the week

after next as well so it's a bit of a

double grilling coming their way Miata

though

let's look at the I suppose the nub of

what Philip Schofield is saying tonight

uh and the accusation is he met this

Runner when he was 15 years old he got

him a job on the program and then he

started a sexual relationship with him

which by anybody's book is wholly

inappropriate he's able to lie to pretty

much everybody about it

he's saying though which is I guess the

most important fact he's trying to put

on a public domain tonight that their

relationship although still utterly

inappropriate because they have a very

senior powerful figure in television

having a relationship with incredibly

Young Junior impressionable person he

was 20 years old when that relationship

began so there's no question there was

any illegality there because according

to Philip Schofield anyway he was old

enough to pass any age of consent and

although presumably to know what he was

doing does that change anything for you

I don't think it does because in the end

the behavior wasn't appropriate and he

conceives that himself and in the end

all of this has to be investigated for

me at the Crux of this is a duty of care

to someone that was young and vulnerable

in a professional setting uh you had

someone that was incredibly powerful in

that setting it's whether that power was

used in any way

um and then the second bit for me is who

knew what I think that is the Crux of

the matter what was covered up and it's

not just about the relationship as I

understand it it's how when the

relationship broke down uh you know the

individual in concerned was treated so I

think it's a whole package of things and

I think there's probably a lot more to

come out and that's why it needs to be

properly investigated and the key here

is the reputation of ITV and you cannot

stand as a broadcaster you know complete

uh respect and have the confidence and

Trust of the public and then be seen to

keep things behind and allow an

appropriate Behavior to go and Challenge

and unchecked

and basically what we're getting on to

here is who at ITV knew what and when is

that right yeah that is right and that

is absolutely right and that's what how

this how this story will develop and

it's about itv's corporate reputation

and there will be a business story to

this ITV share price hasn't been doing

so well in the last couple of years and

what will the board decide uh the

measures and what will happen obviously

with this inquiry we hope is first of

all obviously the facts will come out

and they may be perhaps even more

shocking than what we've seen already

but secondly that there will hopefully

be a plan for ITV to make sure something

like this doesn't happen again because

we are talking and we're going to be

talking about it again in the context of

Westminster again about an age-old thing

of power relationships and the abuse of

power what measures can you put in to

stop that happening and it is pervasive

in all walks of life whether it's the

media law firms or whatever and will

that pass muster and they will even

though ofcom doesn't really have a

technical role here because ofcom's job

is to regulate the content that ITV puts

out but will oftcom and indeed the

government agree with what ITV is doing

ITV will want to bring the government

and parliamentarians MPS and of com with

them on this journey but they've got to

act swiftly they've got to be decisive

and they can't take any half measures

they can't say they can't try and get

away with anything now it's now kind of

become the biggest kind of media story

for quite some time and ITV can only

really start to come back from this by

being full and Frank and open and it may

be that some heads will have to roll I'm

not going to speculate on which ads they

may be I don't have a the ITV organogram

in front of me but that may well be the

case uh we can bring you a little bit

more detail now from this interview in

the sun physical field says this about

its relationship with ITV certainly

we're not suing ITV for breach of

contract I guess that's not a huge

surprise to anybody certainly not

demanding a settlement package either he

says and said I think when you you've

caused this damage you can expect

nothing it's my fault I completely

understand that's not particularly

surprising uh it goes on to say some

other things that ITV have offered in

therapy he's yet to accept it and said

he's relying on his wife daughters and

friends for their support he also says

that he did not use ITV money to pay for

taxis for the man who of course then was

his lover saying I don't have an ITV

account speaking about his life after

the Scandal Phillip Schofield wants to

make this clear that he's a Broken Man

in fact he says I'm in a very bad way

mentally utterly utterly broken I feel

embarrassed and ashamed I've just felt

like I was going lower and lower and

lower and lower and then this bizarre

numbness washes over you like a

selfishness his words I do not think I

will ever be able to walk down the

street ever again is like everybody

knows I can't go out

Miata

he has done something pretty bad here uh

whether ITV were complicit in covering

up we will find out and obviously

interesting about select committee is

you purify the selectivity you cannot

lie you can put out statements that

might mislead the media we don't know

whether writing had done that or not but

in front of a parliamentary select

committee you are under oath and if you

don't tell the truth till then you're in

very serious trouble indeed but

there's also a human element of all this

if I was in a lot of trouble if Phillip

Schofield was in a lot of trouble I

guess my advice would say go out and say

you're desperately desperately

desperately sorry

do you have any sympathy for him as a

human being do you think this is a

another play

look I think he's obviously really

broken it's mortifying his careers and

tatters so a very human level of course

you will feel

you know sadness it's a life destroyed

and there's another life on the other

side of it that has been really badly

impacted

um but in the end for me there is a

bigger piece here which is that point

about abuse of power that is far too

pervasive you know across the piece and

if we want to stop that we have to call

it out and there has to be no tolerance

and whether it's in the media realm or

it's in Westminster there has to be no

tolerance because otherwise you just

don't shift the behavior and I think

that is the key and that unfortunately

you know on top of the lives that have

been massively damaged that's the bit

that matters okay we've actually got a

little bit more video from the Sun

interview we can play in our them

obviously talking to Philip Schofield

let's have another look

my biggest regret is getting into a

relationship work

everybody

to every single person

I am

deeply sorry

and I I apologize to him

because I should have known better

okay well this is interesting stuff out

of me I said Ed

what do you think changes when I see you

come in front of the select committee

Phillip Schofield I guess you can say

whatever he wants but it's not really

going to change I think if I was on the

select committee I would give ITV quite

a hard time to be honest with you

because I think the tone of their

reaction to this crisis has been to say

it's Philip schofield's fault uh Philip

Schofield says that interview it is his

fault of course it is his fault and by

the way I totally agree with Miata there

is a human element to this uh and

however appallingly someone has behaved

you've got to remember they are a human

being and what he's going through there

particularly that interview which must

have been gruesome uh is not something

any of us would want to go through but I

think I would be tough with them by

saying you can't simply get away with

saying uh that this guy lied to you and

that's the end of it and that you

investigated three years ago because as

I say I mean this is to a certain extent

rumor and anecdote but all of us who

work as it were or are involved in the

media now this story has come to light

for someone like me who didn't know

anything about it beforehand but it is

apparent that lots of people working in

the media knew about this over the last

three years and to me sitting as an MP

knowing that I would think uh I'm not an

MP just for the fuse benefit if I had if

I were an empty would be uh it's just

not credible it's just not credible that

you didn't kind of know something was

going on and you didn't intervene and it

is not credible now to say we didn't

know anything we took him at his word we

did a bit of an investigation and we all

moved on because it's blown up and

you've got to be you've got to do a cut

there's got to be a male mayor culpr at

the kind of executive level as well

otherwise any measures they put in place

to stop something like this happening in

the future yeah will not be credible

what do you mean by America at the

executive level whatever has happened

well I said earlier that I've seen it

seriously I would be very surprised and

I'm not going to speculate who it might

be I would be very surprised if some

Executives did not get

uh embroiled in this dispute and that

heads might have to roll in the future

at the moment when this crisis started

people thought Phillip Schofield leaves

the program end of story it is very

obviously Pages two three four five six

and seven of Tavares son it is very

obviously not the end of the story and

it won't be the end of the story if ITV

go in front of a select committee with

MPS who will want to ask questions and

they'll ask the obvious questions the

questions all of us would ask but as you

say they'll be doing it in public with

the executives on the race to say uh

what did you actually know and what

measures were placed and what actions

did you take and so on and so forth okay

yeah well the duty of care was with ITV

it's a junior member of staff and how

they protected that Junior member of

Staff both going into that relationship

but when the relationship broke down for

me is the key question and that does sit

with them and that is what they have to

be held to account and if there are

heads that rolled it should be it should

be because of that

okay pictures now you can see your

Phillips Schofield with the runner he's

being pixelated because he's not being

identified uh for kind of obvious

reasons I suppose we really do need to

know who did what when how and why

before we can start talking about his

Dental there are pretty important rules

in place in this country over why well

that is that breaking news tonight

Phillip Schofield has spoken to the son

to say he is desperately ashamed he is a

broken man but he did not groom the

runner who later went on to become his

lover

foreign

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