The age of the runner said to have been romantically linked with Phillip Schofield has now been confirmed by ITV. The TV presenter, aged 61, said in a statement that he was in a "consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague" on Friday (May 26).
It happened after Schofield had left This Morning the week prior, according to Liverpool Echo. ITV has now instructed a barrister to carry out an external review of the facts, chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said in a letter seen by the PA news agency.
The letter was sent to culture secretary Lucy Frazer, DCMS Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage and Ofcom's chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, in the wake of Schofield's departure from ITV last week. The letter mentions the "significant media coverage concerning Phillip Schofield" and adds that: "As you would expect we take the matter extremely seriously and have reviewed our own records over the weekend."
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It says that ITV records show that "when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in late 2019/early 2020 ITV investigated. Both parties were questioned then and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours, as did Phillip's then agency YMU.
"In addition, ITV spoke to a number of people who worked on the This Morning and wider Daytime team and were not provided with, and did not find any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour. Given the ongoing rumours, we continued to ask questions of both parties, who both continued to deny the rumours, including as recently as this month."
The letter goes on to state facts, following what Dame Carolyn described as "a lot of inaccuracy" in reporting and she added the former employee Schofield admitted to an affair with has been offered support throughout. It continued: "The ITV employee was aged 19 when he first did work experience at This Morning in 2015 and 20 years old when he applied and succeeded in securing a job as a runner on the show.
"He subsequently applied for and was successful in securing a promotion to Loose Women in 2019. He left ITV in 2021.
"As you would imagine given the social media scrutiny of him, we have offered him our support throughout this period and indeed are still doing so. The employee has made it clear that he does not wish to be named or identified in connection with this matter. We would be grateful if you would be mindful of this."
Schofield's relationship took place while the TV star was still married to wife Stephanie Lowe and before he came out publicly as gay. Part of a statement he released on Friday said the affair had been "unwise but not illegal".
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