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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Daniel Bird

Phillip Schofield QUITS Dancing On Ice after admitting affair with young ITV employee

Phillip Schofield has quit all of his roles with ITV including Dancing On Ice with immediate effect.

It comes after the presenter admitted to lying to his wife, management, legal team and ITV about a relationship with a much younger male ITV employee.

In a statement shared with the media, Phillip said: "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.

"I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me."

Phillip added: "I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.

"The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning.

Phillip presented the programme with former friend Holly Willoughby (Matt Frost/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

"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."

The presenter went on to say: "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."

He continued: "I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.

"To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.

"I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected."

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