Phillip Schofield quit ITV’s This Morning show in May after admitting his affair with a younger male colleague. Photo / Getty Images
Phillip Schofield quit ITV’s This Morning show in May after admitting his affair with a younger male colleague. Photo / Getty Images
A report investigating the Phillip Schofield scandal at ITV has revealed that he refused to take part in the review because of “the risk to his health”.
The report, published today by Jane Mulcahy KC, says staff at broadcaster ITV were still scared to speak out against Schofield for fearof hurting their careers.
Forty-eight people were interviewed as part of the investigation into Schofield’s affair with a younger man working on ITV’s This Morning. Of these, only one admitted to knowing about the relationship before the news broke in May.
The report also shows ITV did not cover up the scandal and that those in senior positions had made “considerable efforts” to uncover the truth in 2019, four years before news of the affair came to light. The external review also found that the channel was “unable to uncover the relevant evidence” until Schofield admitted it.
Mulcahy said she had been told that Schofield’s mental health had plummeted since the scandal broke.
Phillip Schofield gave an interview to the BBC’s Amol Rajan about the affair. Photo / BBC
ITV bosses have said both he and his former lover “repeatedly denied” rumours of their entanglement until Schofield dramatically quit This Morning and publicly apologised. The younger man, whose identity has never been revealed, also refused to participate in the report.
ITV chairman Andy Cosslett said Mulcahy had “informed the board that for the period under review” there had been “no finding of a ‘toxic’ culture and had there been one [she] would have said so”.
Schofield left the show in May and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after confessing to his “unwise but not illegal” affair with the man, who was a runner on the show.
In her report, Mulcahy said: “I have no doubt that senior management are absolutely wedded to the importance of an open culture.
“But this culture is still not filtering down to junior employees, many of whom remain convinced that to speak out will have a detrimental impact on their careers.”
She added that 55 interviews were conducted for the investigation, which saw her speak to 48 people, seven of whom she spoke to twice.
Phillip Schofield and co-host Holly Willoughby in 2020 with the award for Live Magazine Show for 'This Morning'. Photo / Getty Images
“Only one person to whom I spoke had any knowledge of an affair between Schofield and the colleague prior to May 2023 (they became aware in 2021) and that former junior employee did not report their knowledge at the time. Nor did others report suspicions from much earlier in 2017″.
The report said: “ITV’s management made considerable efforts to determine the truth about an alleged relationship between PS [Schofield] and PX [the runner] following on from the publication of a story in The Sun newspaper in early December 2019.
“However, in the face of the denials of the individuals involved, ITV was unable to uncover the relevant evidence until PS’s admission in late May 2023.”
