Phillip Schofield finally responded to the criticism he received after his appearance on Channel 5 ’s Cast Away. The documentary series marked the 62-year-old’s comeback to screens after he was forced to step down from all his hosting roles in May 2023. He released a public statement at the time saying he'd “ agreed to step down from This Morning with immediate effect,” after a 23-year run on the show.
This came after his controversial and “consensual” affair with a “younger male colleague” while working on the ITV programme However, Phillip has maintained the relationship was “unwise, but not illegal”. What followed was a 16-month hiatus from screens, until Cast Away was announced with Phillip spending 10 days in solitude on an uninhabited island off the coast of Madagascar. While many viewers discovered a newfound empathy for the presenter, others claimed it was a transparent attempt to rescue his reputation.
Phillip responded to the mixed response and penned: “Thank you for your incredible support, I’ve been shown hundreds of lovely messages which are very important to me. I’m so proud it shows.” “Obvs the haters can .
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Kiss my a**** (sic),” he added hitting back at critics alongside a photo of him running naked in the wilderness, with his back to the camera. During the third and final episode of Cast Away, Phillip implied his exit from This Morning was related to his brother Timothy Schofield's criminal conviction. In April 2023, the I.