The ITV employee with whom Phillip Schofield had an affair was allegedly 15 when he first met the disgraced This Morning presenter during a school visit.
Schofield, 61, has quit the broadcaster entirely after admitting that he lied to ITV, his colleagues, his lawyers and his agent over the nature of his relationship with a much younger male colleague.
In a statement, Schofield said he had an “unwise” but “not illegal” with a colleague who worked on This Morning.
An ITV spokesperson said the channel felt “badly let down” by Schofield and accepted his resignation. Meanwhile, his former co-host Holly Willoughby said it had been “very hurtful” to learn he lied to her, after she apparently asked him directly about rumours of his affair were true.
According to the latest report by The Mail on Sunday, Schofield’s former colleague was allegedly just 15 when they met at a talk the TV presenter was giving at a theatre school, while Schofield was in his late forties.
The teenager apparently asked him about job prospects, and Schofield later arranged an interview for him with the broadcaster, which then hired him as a production assistant when he turned 18.
By this point, Schofield was in his early fifties. In his statement, he said that what was initially a friendship turned into “more” after the teenager began working on the show.
“That relationship was unwise, but not illegal,” he said. “It is now over.”
Lawyers representing Schofield confirmed to the Evening Standard that he met the boy when he was 15, but said that the affair began when he started working at ITV, after he turned 18.
The Independent has contacted ITV and reached out to Schofield for comment.
Schofield’s statement denied any knowledge of an “injunction, super or otherwise”, that might have prevented his affair being made public. He also denied having any involvement in the colleague leaving the show to work on other ITV projects.
According to the Mail on Sunday, ITV first began investigating rumours of an inappropriate relationship between Schofield and his colleague after he “declared his love for Phil in no uncertain terms” during an awards ceremony.
An ITV spokesperson confirmed this week that the broadcaster investigated in early 2020 after “rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate”.
“Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours, as did Phillip’s then-agency YMU,” the spokesperson said.
“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... 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.”
