The boss of ITV has confirmed that the broadcaster is funding Phillip Schofield's counselling after he requested the help after he resigned from ITV and was dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting to an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger male colleague.
A week before he admitted to the rumoured relationship, Schofield, 61, stepped back as host of This Morning after rumours of a 'feud' between him and co-host Holly Willoughby behind the scenes hit the headlines. He later stepped back from ITV altogether after he admitted to lying to Holly, his employers, and others about his affair with the young man.
Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, has been appearing before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday (June 14) to answer questions about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling after Schofield left as host of This Morning.
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While being quizzed during the session, McCall said the "imbalance of power" made Schofield's relationship "deeply inappropriate". She said: "And we have policies that say that very clearly," she said.
Dame Carolyn also confirmed, via the BBC, that "we've remained in touch with Phillip" and added that "he is receiving counselling". She said the former ITV presenter, 61, asked for the counselling and also said that ITV is funding it.
Dame Carolyn added that "with person X there's a whole series of duty of care" even though they left the company in 2021. She said that ITV gave "person X" aspects of duty of care "as recently as last week".
As the quizzing continued, Dame Carolyn said she had "never spoken to person X", but she has spoken to Schofield since he quit his position with the network. She told the committee that Schofield had "just sent" her a text saying how "deeply sorry" he is for having lied to ITV.
It comes after Dame Carolyn said she'd been looking into what was happening in December 2019 following rumours relating to Schofield's affair, but when Schofield came out in February 2020 the rumours intensified.
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