Jason Gardiner has become the latest ITV star to speak out against the alleged “toxic culture” at the TV channel.
The formerDancing on Ice judge appeared on the ice skating TV contest alongside Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield for 10 seasons, before leaving in 2019.
His former co-stars have since been caught up in the scandal surrounding Schofield, 61, who admitted last month that he lied about having an affair with a young colleague on This Morning.
Speaking to The Sun, Gardiner joined former ITV contributors such as Dr Ranj Singh in claiming that there was a “toxic” environment on certain ITV shows.
“The fish rots from the head… there’s a lot of toxic people still in control,” he said.
“I believe this toxic culture will destroy itself. This is opening Pandora’s box, and rightly so.”
Gardiner, who appeared on the skating competition series when it began in 2006, claimed that he was “put in his place” by producers when they felt he wasn’t playing up to his on-screen “nasty” persona.
“They played with me,” he said. “If I wasn’t nasty enough, I was called in after the show, frogmarched in, and sat down like, ‘What’s happening with you? We haven’t hired you to be nice. We’ve got four other people that will just be very nice and say nothing.’”
Gardiner left the show in 2019, following an on-screen spat with contestant Gemma Collins. During one heated exchange, the The Only Way is Essex star accused Gardiner of selling stories about her to the press.
“I’ve skin as thick as a rhino but this accusation, live on air, was beyond the pale,” he said.
“They knew the facts, they knew it was a total lie but they decided – and this is what they told me – that they didn’t want to weigh in and make a statement because it would give it ‘gravitas’.”
He continued: “ITV has its Be Kind campaign and has made this big push for male mental health – but it’s all bulls***. There was no consideration for my mental health, my wellbeing, what I was going through.”
However, an ITV source told The Independent: This isn’t our recollection of events. This was part of a wider conversation outlining the possible ramifications of legal action, and it was felt it would be inappropriate for him as a celebrity judge to be judging an individual contestant against whom he was pursuing a legal case.
“This was no way intended to be seen as unsupportive, more a transparency about the process.”
Willoughby returned to This Morning last week after a scheduled two-week holiday, issuing a widely commented-upon statement in her first episode since Schofield quit the programme.
ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall will face questions from MPs about allegations of a “toxic” culture at the broadcaster on Wednesday 14 June.
She will appear before a session of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 14 June to give evidence about how much ITV bosses knew regarding the situation.
