Phillip Schofield says the “utter betrayal” by his television colleagues has made him never want to be a daytime presenter again as he returned to the limelight. The 62-year-old former This Morning presenter will be seen on screen in Channel 5’s Phillip Schofield: Cast Away, his first appearance on a TV series since he left ITV in May 2023 after he admitted to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague. When he resigned more than a year ago, he denied that he had been “forced out” of the ITV daytime programme, and said he was “so very, very sorry” for lying to the channel, his colleagues, wife and friends.
However, on the fourth day on the small island of Nosy Ankarea, off the coast of Madagascar, Schofield claims he was “chucked under a bus”, and added that he could do the same to others, but he is “not that sort of person”. Phillip Schofield returned to UK screens in Cast Away: Episode 2 (Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited/Paramount) Schofield says that when he started at the BBC as a booking clerk at 19, he first was able to go to Television Centre, where ITV’s This Morning was later filmed, and he “loved being there”. He added: “When what happened to me happened to me, it screwed up my favourite building in the world, and it pretty well blew away all those happy memories, and suddenly the place became hostile to me, and that was heartbreaking.
“And the people who did it to me know, they know how important that building.