The broadcasting company has been thrown into crisis after Phillip Schofield sensationally quit This Morning and subsequently resigned from all his ITV projects after admitting to an affair.
Schofield, 61, revealed he had an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a young male show runner on This Morning while still with his wife Stephanie Lowe, which he said he had lied about.
Since then, Holly Willoughby has presenting the ITV daytime programme with the likes of Josie Gibson, though it has yet to be confirmed who will be Schofield’s permanent replacement.
Alison, who presents Fridays on This Morning with Dermot O’Leary, is a favourite to be announced as a replacement, and it’s now been rumoured ITV are keen to ‘lock her in’.
A source has reportedly confirmed that ITV bosses are looking at game show projects and light entertainment options for the 48-year-old, who was announced this year as the new Great British Bake Off host.
An insider shared: ‘ITV bosses want to cut a new deal with Alison. They are seriously worried about Holly talking to the BBC and fear she could be next.
‘She is incredibly popular and is perceived as very honest – which is worth a lot following Phillip’s admission that he lied to everyone.’
They added to the Mirror: ‘They want to lock her in, and there has even been talk of a golden handcuffs deal solely for entertainment shows with ITV.’
The source suggested a deal like that could land her a salary of up to £500,000 per year, but insisted that there are ‘currently no plans in place for that’.
This comes after the publication reported that Holly was ‘in talk to join the BBC’ after her stint hosting Wim Hof’s Freeze The Fear.
Holly Willoughby’s statement in full as she returns to This Morning after Phillip Schofield exit
‘Hi there, good morning. Josie, thank you for being here. Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok? I hope so. It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.
‘I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions.
‘You me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process, and it’s equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health.
‘I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal, for the health and wellbeing of everyone.
‘I hope that we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.
‘From my heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages and thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie, Dermot, Alison, Craig and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you this show that we love.’
On Monday, Holly, 42, returned to This Morning after a two-week break, and said: ‘Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you ok? I hope so. It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.’
She continued: ‘I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on and full of questions.
‘You me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.’
After Schofield’s bombshell confession, she took to her Instagram stories to say: ‘It’s taken time to process yesterday’s news. When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not.
‘It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie. Holly.’
It has since been reported that after her speech on Monday’s This Morning, Holly won’t be addressing Schofield’s affair again.
After revealing his affair, Schofield took part in an explosive interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan, in which he spoke about the ‘catastrophic effect’ the fallout of the scandal has had on his mind.
He said: ‘Do you want me to die? Because that’s where I am.’
He also spoke about his daughters Ruby and Molly Lowe’s round-the-clock care for him, adding: ‘If my girls hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here because I don’t see a future.’
The no holds barred interview was discussed on This Morning, causing Alison to burst into tears.
Phillip Schofield’s tell-all interview: The key points
Phillip Schofield bared all in interviews with The Sun and BBC amid the fallout of confessing to an affair with a This Morning runner. Here is what he said:
‘I did not groom him’
Schofield insists he is not a groomer, saying that while he met the former colleague while he was a teenager, their interactions were innocent and only became sexual when the runner was around 20/21 years old.
He said it never felt like an ‘abuse of power’ because they were ‘mates’.
The affair began in 2017
He has said that the affair began after a ‘consensual moment’ in his dressing room.
‘It was not a love affair, it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends; we were mates,’ he insisted. ‘It wasn’t feelings (I was getting), it was more like mates: excitement.’
His wife is ‘very, very angry’
The affair took place while Schofield was married to wife Stephanie Lowe, with whom he shares two daughters.
On the moment he told his wife, he said: ‘She got off a plane and I phoned her up and texted saying, “I need to talk to you”. She called back and I told her. She was very, very angry.’
Schofield still wears his wedding ring, but explained that he and Stephanie are ‘separated’.
His daughters saved his life
Schofield confessed to feeling suicidal amid the fallout of his affair and the ‘relentless’ media attention.
His two daughters – Molly, 29, and Ruby, 27 – have been ‘afraid’ to leave his side and warned him: ‘Don’t you dare do this on our watch.’
‘If it hadn’t been for my girls last week, I wouldn’t be here.’
He has apologised to Holly Willoughby
After rumours of a fallout between the pair and after Holly Willoughby said she was lied to by Schofield after asking him about his affair, he has apologised to his former co-presenter.
He said: ‘I’ve lost my best friend. I let her down (Holly). I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down.
‘Holly did not know (about the romance). And she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say, “I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.’
He will ‘die sorry’ to the runner he had the affair with
‘I have massive guilt, and regret. I’ve made a mistake, I’ve had an affair at work. I think my greatest apology must go to him. It has brought the greatest misery into his totally innocent life, his totally innocent family, his totally innocent friends.
‘It has brought the greatest grief to them.’
The colleague has not been named in the press for his privacy.
No pay-offs
Schofield denied allegations that the runner received hush money from ITV, saying the promotion he got wasn’t to ‘move him on’ but because of his own talents.
He also insisted that the young man did not sign an NDA preventing him from speaking out.
Comparing age gap backlash to ‘homophobia’
‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world,’ he said of age differences.
‘Attraction is attraction. It’s no different in the gay world as it is in the heterosexual world or in the lesbian world. There shouldn’t be a difference. This is where homophobia comes in.’
Eamonn Holmes is an ‘angry’ man
After Eamonn Holmes made a series of strong allegations against Schofield, he said the Irish TV presenter is just ‘angry’ he’s not on This Morning anymore.
He also continuously denied that This Morning is ‘toxic’.
Doesn’t think he’ll work in TV again
Schofield said it ‘breaks [my] heart’ to talk about TV in the past tense, but he doesn’t see a way back for him.
‘I do not think I will be able to walk down a street ever again. It is like everybody knows.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he said frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
‘I’m finding this really painful,’ she revealed. ‘I loved Phillip Schofield. It’s weird because I still love Phillip Schofield.’
She added that she knew what he did wasn’t right.
‘However, what he’s done is wrong. He’s admitted it. He’s said sorry. As a family, we’re really struggling to process everything. I never know what to say.’
The presenter recalled some advice from her late mum, who told her to ‘use the bible as your sat nav,’ and remember ‘those without sin cast the first stone.’
‘I don’t want to say anything bad because obviously, I’m in conflict,’ she concluded.
Later she added: ‘There’s only so much any man can take, and I don’t want any death in this situation.’
Metro.co.uk has approached ITV for comment.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
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