ITV has confirmed they investigated rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee in early 2020.
Mr Schofield sensationally quit ITV on Friday after announcing that he had an affair with a younger male colleague who worked on the channel's daytime programme. The 61-year-old presenter apologised for lying to his colleagues about the relationship.
An ITV spokesperson has now confirmed that the channel investigated his relationship with an employee when rumours began to circulate in 2020. However, after questioning, ITV did not find any evidence of a relationship "beyond hearsay and rumour".
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An ITV spokesperson said: “Further to our statement last night, ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.
“Both parties were questioned 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 This Morning and were not provided with, and did not find, any evidence of a relationship beyond hearsay and rumour.
“Phillip’s statement yesterday reveals that he lied to people at ITV, from senior management to fellow presenters, to YMU, to the media and to others over this relationship.”
In a statement sent to the Daily Mail on Friday, Phillip Schofield said that he had decided to step down from the British Soap Awards and was resigning from ITV with "immediate effect" before thanking the channel for the "amazing opportunities".
He said: ""I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning. Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
"When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody "forced" me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
"In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven't been truthful about the relationship. But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
"I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife."
On Friday, ITV issued a statement to our sister site, Mirror Online that they were "deeply disappointed" by the admissions of deceit made by Phillip Schofield.
The statement read: "The relationships we have with those we work with are based on trust. Philip made assurances to us which he now acknowledges were untrue and we feel badly let down. "We accept his resignation from ITV and therefore can confirm that he will not be appearing on ITV as had previously been stated."
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