Phillip Schofield is back in the headlines again for his new show, Cast Away.
It’s the television presenter’s first appearance on-screen since he left This Morning following allegations of an affair between himself and a younger colleague. And he clearly has plenty to say: the show is packed with bombshell revelations and Schofield’s own take on everything from allegations of toxicity on the show to coming out later in life.
Here’s our roundup of the biggest revelations from his show so far, in Schofield’s own words.
On his TV career being over
“This is the last challenge... I’m not going to sit on a sofa again. I won’t do that again. And there are some people I won’t work for again. Some people I won’t work with again. I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly, and by some of the people in that sort of telly, that you get to the point where you think, ‘I don’t want to do it anymore.’”
On people at ITV
“Man alive, people can be fake. They can be so fake. With you when it’s al going well and suddenly utter, utter betrayal. When the tidal wave washed through and it washed everybody away, the ones that were still standing, they’re the ones that matter. And I thought, how many friends do you need? I don’t need 200 fake friends. I’ve got 10, 15, friends I would die for, and they would die for me.”
“Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of amazing people in morning television. I think there are only three shits. One of them is a coward who never stepped up in Queuegate. One of them is a coward because they never stepped up while I was being battered by that one journalist… and the other one is just brand-orientated. Not what you expect. Not what you think you’re going to get.
“To have absolutely no loyalty shown to you… I know what I did was unwise. Not sensible. But is it enough to absolutely destroy someone? Literally destroy them. I don’t think I could have said sorry anymore. I apologised to people I hadn’t actually spoken to. Nobody could be more sorry than me… I was suicidal. Like, literally. One more push and I’m done.”
On the This Morning bullying allegations
“When it all came to a sudden, and very abrupt end, questions were asked about our toxic environment in Parliament. The toxic thing by the way is utter bollocks. Created by papers. There’s no toxicity, there wasn’t when I was there. I found out after I left, there are a few people in there that might be a little bit toxic. I never saw it. When you’re on the telly, you don’t see stuff like that, you’re protected from it. People don’t tell you. So I had no clue. But yeah, there were some pretty tricky people in there. But I didn’t know.”
On coming out
“I'm very proud of what I did, and I know that coming out for so many people is liberating. And it's freedom on a plate.
“Absolutely. Be yourself. Live your life to the absolute full. That's the saying just live your best life. But for me, doing it later in life, at the moment it's just given me more, um, anguish than joy, because I'm fully aware of the damage that it leaves.”
On the impact the scandal had on him
"In the last 18 months it got as dark as it is possible to get. A year ago I got so so close. I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly that was looking after me, Molly and Ruby both looking after me at the time and Molly said, ‘Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you imagine what would happen and can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?’
“And that was enough just to take a step back from the edge. And I could have been hospitalised, I had the option to be hospitalised but I just thought that is going to get out so I raced to the family home."
Phillip Schofield Cast Away is streaming now on Channel 5
