Phillip Schofield – what did ITV know? The key questions as broadcaster’s bosses face MPs
Following Phillip Schofield’s dramatic exit from This Morning, ITV bosses are now set to face questions from MPs.
The broadcaster’s chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall will appear at a parliamentary committee this morning to answer questions about its approach to safeguarding and handling complaints.
Kevin Lygo, ITV‘s managing director for media and entertainment, and Kyla Mullins, the channel’s general counsel and company secretary, will also give evidence.
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‘I don’t want this to be a witch hunt’
Schofield admitted an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague, after weeks of speculation about a feud with his This Morning co-presenter Holly Willoughby.
The 61-year-old later clarified in an interview that the colleague was 20 when the relationship started, but they first met when the younger man was 15.
Given they were both consenting adults at the time Schofield says the relationship began, some have criticised the inquiry and the headlines the presenter’s departure from ITV has generated. Writing for The Times, presenter Jeremy Clarkson questioned the “berserk” response, saying Schofield is “only guilty of being what he said he was: gay”.
But the admission has raised concerns about the imbalance of power and prompted questions about how much ITV knew about the relationship – Schofield has insisted that neither bosses nor Willoughby were aware.
What did ITV know?
Following Schofield’s admission of the affair, ITV has said it investigated “rumours of a relationship” involving a younger employee – but the pair “categorically and repeatedly denied” the affair.
This was around the time the presenter, who has been married to his wife Stephanie Lowe since 1993, came out as gay with an announcement on This Morning, supported by Willoughby, in 2020.
In a statement, ITV said both Schofield and the male colleague were questioned in 2020 but both denied the “rumours”, as did the star’s agency, YMU – who have now dropped him.
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“In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour,” the statement said.
It went on to say Schofield had “lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU, to the media and to others”.
However, former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes has accused the broadcaster of a “total cover-up”.
When asked by Sky News if mistakes were made in their 2020 investigation, Mr Lygo replied: “No.”
Who is Dame Carolyn McCall?
ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall
Dame Carolyn became the first female boss of ITV at the end of 2017, moving to the broadcaster after leaving her role as chief executive of the EasyJet airline. Before that, she ran the Guardian Media Group.
She was awarded her damehood in 2016 for services to the airline industry.
Dame Carolyn has overseen ITV during a difficult period that has included Piers Morgan quitting Good Morning Britain, the axing of The Jeremy Kyle Show, and the suicides of two Love Island contestants and the show’s presenter Caroline Flack.
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Following the fall-out from Schofield’s affair admission, she instructed a barrister to carry out an external review of the facts surrounding the relationship.
Jane Mulcahy KC, of Blackstone Chambers, will conduct this.
“She will review our records and talk to people involved,” Dame Carolyn said in a letter sent to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, culture media and sport (CMS) committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage, and Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes. “This work will also consider our relevant processes and policies and whether we need to change or strengthen any.”
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What happens today?
Dame Carolyn, Mr Lygo and Ms Mullins will appear before the CMS committee to answer questions about the scandal.
MPs will want to know whether senior executives knew about the relationship, and how the younger colleague came to get the job on This Morning in the first place.
Were there systems in place to protect young members of staff from any potential manipulation or abuse of power from those higher up?
What were the circumstances surrounding the younger colleague’s move to Loose Women and, later on, his departure from ITV?
Whatever happens, Dame Caroline has assured the questioning won’t be a “witch hunt” against Schofield.
However, when asked by Sky News if she had concerns about ITV’s handling of the situation, she said: “The fact is that these big public service broadcasters have these gods of television, these incredibly powerful and successful celebrities who do have incredible influence and power, and my committee want to make sure that there are the right workplace practices in place, the right duty of care over junior staff members.
“They (celebrities) do have the potential power over other people’s careers, and we want to ensure that everything is in place that prevents that being abused in any way.”
The hearing is due to begin at 10am.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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