Phillip Schofield resigned from ITV in May 2023 after admitting to an 'unwise but not illegal' affair with a much younger male colleague on This Morning. The confession ended a 20-year reign as the most familiar face on British daytime television.
Schofield, 63, had been a fixture of British screens since the 1980s, rising from the BBC's Broom Cupboard to become the king of daytime TV. Alongside Holly Willoughby, with whom he shared an celebrated on-screen chemistry, he fronted ITV's flagship morning show This Morning for more than two decades, as well as prime-time hits including Dancing on Ice. In February 2020 he came out as gay in an emotional on-air conversation with Willoughby, after nearly 27 years of marriage to his wife Stephanie.
The scandal broke with remarkable speed. On 20 May 2023, ITV announced that Schofield would step down from This Morning with immediate effect, saying his personal life had become the story. Six days later, in a statement to the Daily Mail, he admitted the truth: before leaving his wife, he had carried on an extramarital affair with a younger male ITV co-worker. He had first met the man while giving a talk at the drama school where the latter was a 15-year-old student, and later arranged a job interview for him at This Morning, where he was hired as a production assistant.
Schofield said the affair had begun when the co-worker was 20 and Schofield was in his mid-50s. He admitted lying about it to ITV's management, his colleagues, his lawyers, his agent, his friends and his family, calling the relationship consensual, unwise but not illegal. He resigned from ITV with immediate effect and was dropped within days by his talent agency, YMU, which said honesty and integrity were core values of its business.
ITV said it had investigated rumours of a relationship in early 2020, but that both men had repeatedly denied the affair. Dame Carolyn McCall, ITV's chief executive, commissioned an external review by a barrister, which concluded in December 2023 that the broadcaster had been unable to uncover the relevant evidence. The affair also hastened the departure of Willoughby, who left This Morning in October 2023 after 14 years, following a separate security scare.
In the aftermath, Schofield gave tearful interviews to the BBC's Amol Rajan and The Sun, apologising to the young man for bringing misery into his life, denying grooming, and saying he had lost everything and felt utterly broken. He suggested homophobia had coloured the media coverage, arguing that an affair with a woman would not have created such a scandal. Supporters including Elton John, Jeremy Clarkson and Piers Morgan rallied to his defence.
Schofield eventually resurfaced in September 2024 with Cast Away, a three-part Channel 5 series in which he spent ten days alone on a remote island. Financial disclosures showed the scale of his fall: he earned just £20,000 in 2024, a fraction of his former seven-figure ITV salary, though his production company Fistral Productions retained net assets of £2.1 million. Mainstream television has yet to welcome him back.