ITV boss Carolyn McCall has said that the “imbalance of power” made Phillip Schofield’s relationship with a younger production runner on This Morning “deeply inappropriate”. The chief executive appeared before a UK Culture Media and Sport Committee (CMS) parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday, June 14 to discuss the working culture and duty of care at ITV following the controversy around Schofield and his time on the flagship show.
McCall was joined by ITV’s managing director for media and entertainment Kevin Lygo and general counsel Kyla Mullins. Mullins detailed the company’s investigation of Schofield’s affair, telling the CMS committee the runner (referred to during proceedings as “Person X”) was asked by ITV 12 times about his relationship with Schofield and denied it each time. She added that the former presenter also repeatedly denied the claims until his resignation last month.
McCall added: “We asked multiple times of both individuals both formally and informally. We felt that was proportional to what we had, because we had no evidence. There was only hearsay and rumour and speculation.” For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
She continued: “We were also very very concerned about the state of mind of both Phillip and Person X. Phillip was not in a good state […] and Person X could not grasp the media intrusion that was so prevalent in his life now. If we’d had any evidence, we would have done a formal investigation.”
Phillip Schofield resigned from ITV on Saturday, May 20 following reports of a feud between him and This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby. A week after his exit from the show, he issued a further statement outlining that he had lied about a consensual, non-”illegal but unwise” affair with a younger production runner.
In the ensuing fall-out, former This Morning staff, such as Dr Ranj Singh and Eamonn Holmes, have shared their own, negative experiences of working on the show. Singh called the atmosphere there “toxic”, which has been publicly denied by Schofield in an interview with journalist Amol Rajan for the BBC - read the key points from that here.
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