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This Morning/ITV
Phillip Schofield spoke out in his first broadcast interview since revelations of his affair.
This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has said he “wouldn’t be here” if his daughters weren’t by his side, as he has “lost everything” since the fallout after his departure from the show.
After the 61-year-old admitted to having an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a younger staff member, Schofield said the press attention had been “relentless” and that he had been having suicidal thoughts.
“My girls saved my life,” Schofield told BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan, in his first broadcast interview. “They said last week they haven’t left me for a moment. They’ve been by my side every moment because they’re scared to let me out of their sight. What is that like for daughters to have to go with something like that?
“And they said to me, ‘don’t you dare do this on our watch. We’re supposed to be looking after you’. If my girls hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here, because I don’t see my future.”
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Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Phillip Schofield pictured with Holly Willoughby, his former This Morning co-presenter.
Schofield remarked that his two daughters, Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27, “guarded me and won’t let me out of their sight”.
He admitted: “I have brought myself down”.
Schofield said that the fallout of his affair means his “career is over” and has had a “catastrophic effect” on his mind.
Schofield drew comparisons between himself and Love Island host Caroline Flack, who was found dead at the age of 40 in February 2020.
“And so how much do you want a man to take, and are you truly only happy when he’s dead? And this is how Caroline Flack felt. And it didn’t stop. And I know I’ve done something wrong, and I’ve owned up to doing something wrong.
“Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am”.
In an interview published last Friday, Schofield told the Sun about intimate details of the affair, revealing the pair were “mates” who became romantically linked following a “consensual” run-in in a dressing room in 2017.
“I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career,” Schofield told The Sun.
ITV
This Morning hosts pay tribute to Phillip Schofield in the first episode since he resigned.
“I know I did that. And there is no excuse. I won’t put forward an excuse. No one did anything wrong apart from me.”
The television presenter also denied accusations of grooming, and says homophobia is responsible for some of the criticism thrown over the pair’s age gap.
“There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way (an abuse of power) because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that,” he said.
“But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgement, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that anywhere else.
“Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world … It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world.”
Schofield began his TV career in New Zealand. He spent three years hosting 1980s music show Shazam!, and was a Radio Hauraki DJ.
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