The former This Morning and Dancing on Ice host quit ITV in May 2023 after admitting he had an affair with a younger colleague, and has not worked as a presenter since
Phillip Schofield’s daughter has said she hopes that her father taking part in a Channel 5 show will allow him to be forgiven for the “mistake” which saw him exit ITV.
Schofield, 62, resigned from ITV in May 2023 after he admitted to lying to his employers and colleagues over the “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger colleague, and has not presented any programme since.
In the second episode of Channel 5’s Phillip Schofield : Cast Away his daughter Molly says: “I would love people to understand what’s actually happened, and forgive him for a mistake.” Schofield also says he wishes he had not had the affair, as he “made life tough for the people that I love the most”, and later says that he does not think he could say “sorry any more”. “I apologised to people that I hadn’t actually spoke to, and no-one could be more sorry than me,” he says.
He is also angered by the way it was reported by the media and insists it would be different if it had been a young female colleague. Whilst on his tropical island off the coast of Madagascar He says: “Shamed, disgraced Phillip Schofield. Who had an affair. But strangely, I think another TV Presenter or two might have done exactly the same thing.
He continued to muse: “Difference is, heterosexual. It’s not unusual thing in the gay world for there to be a difference in age groups. That’s not that unusual in the straight world, but if that had been the case with me and it had been a woman. Pat on the back. Well done mate.”
Phillip Schofield’s estranged wife and their two daughters appear in his TV comeback ( Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
The TV presenter’s daughter hopes the Channel 5 show will win her dad forgiveness from the public ( Image: Channel 5)
Despite Molly’s hopes for her dad, he has made it clear whatever happens he would never return to ITV to work, where he found such success with Holly Willoughby. In episode one of Phillip Schofield: Cast Away he says he is being tipped to do I’m A Celebrity on ITV where he used to work. But Schofield says: “Although my best mates host it(Ant and Dec), there are some channels you just won’t work for. There are some people you won’t work for.”
On the second episode, he also says he had expected to “die on live television at 93”, but now he does not think he wants to “do it any more”, as he has been “hurt so badly” by being a presenter, and “some of the people on that sort of telly”. Molly appears on the show as well as her sister Ruby and mum Stephanie. They sit down to a BBQ meal with Schofield before he heads off to the island.
At the garden table Schofe mocks former co-host Holly Willoughby by asking his family “If you’re okay, then we’re okay and I’m Okay. Are you okay?” Holly famously asked this question of viewers after Schofield quit This Morning. Stephanie says: “What people don’t realise is that they batter you but then there are other people affected.” She adds: “There’s no question by doing this you’re popping your head back up above the parapet for the very few horrid people that there are out there.”
