‘Broken and ashamed’ Phillip Schofield says he did not groom younger colleague

Phillip Schofield has said he feels “utterly broken and ashamed” following a scandal over an affair with a younger male colleague – but insisted he did not groom him.

Schofield, 61, resigned from ITV last week and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.

In an interview with The Sun, he insisted he “did not” groom the man, as he told the paper he will “die sorry” and said his “greatest apology” over the fallout from the affair was to his former lover.

The interview comes after ITV announced it had launched an external review to establish the facts around the relationship between presenter Schofield and his This Morning colleague.

Schofield told the paper: “I did not, I did not (groom him)”.

He also said that his “greatest apology” was to his former lover, who has been brought the “greatest misery into his totally innocent life”.

He added: “I am deeply sorry and I apologise to him because I should have known better…I will die sorry. I am so deeply mortified.”

The affair took place before Schofield publicly came out as gay, and while he was still married to his wife Stephanie Lowe.

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Schofield, who married his wife Stephanie in 1993, came out as gay on This Morning in 2020.

Wife was ‘very, very angry’

He told the paper his wife was “very, very angry” after he confessed to her about his affair with a younger ITV colleague and said he had previously denied rumours about the affair to her when she had asked.

He said: “She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, ‘I need to talk to you’.

“She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.”

His exit from This Morning came after weeks of rumours of a rift between him and his co-presenter Holly Willoughby.

Willoughby said Schofield lied to her about his affair with a much younger male colleague and said it was “very hurtful”. Rumours of the relationship had first begun to circulate in 2020.

ITV said it had investigated – but both Schofield and the employee “repeatedly denied” the affair.

In a separate interview with BBC News, Schofield said his interactions with the younger male before he joined This Morning were “completely innocent”.

He told BBC News: “It was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent Twitter follow, of which I follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job, about careers”.

He added: “The brief communications backwards and forwards up to the point that he came to work on This Morning I think was just chat.

“What was unwise was the fact that it happened. And that was a very, very grave error, it was consensual, but it was my fault.”