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Nadine Dorries has weighed in on the fallout of Phillip Schofield’s bombshell affair confession.
The former This Morning presenter, 61, sensationally quit the ITV daytime show last week amid rumours of a ‘fallout’ with co-presenter Holly Willoughby, 42.
However, it later emerged that, following years of speculation, that Phil had a relationship with a much younger male colleague while he was still married to his wife and before coming out as gay.
Phil made the confession in a tell-all statement on Friday (May 26), also announcing that he had resigned from ITV with ‘immediate effect’ and would not be hosting next week’s British Soap Awards.
As a result, his talent agency of 35 years also dropped him, and his future in broadcasting remains unclear.
Several TV stars have shared their thoughts on the situation, with the likes of Eamonn Holmes being especially vocal with his feeling about being ‘lied’ to by Phil.
Now, former Culture Secretary Nadine has called for Holly to also be asked questions.
Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she was asked by the host whether ‘axing’ This Morning completely would be an ‘appropriate response.’
Nadine replied: ‘I wrote about this last week and one of the points that I made was that it’ll all come out in the wash – and it has.
‘The fact that Phillip Schofield has made a rather grovelling apology to the Daily Mail in the form of an email, there seems to be this understanding that that’s it now, everything will move on, and it’s not the case, I’m afraid.’
‘What it actually does is it opens up more questions as to what happened,’ she said.
‘We know that there were complaints lodged with ITV over a long period of time. What happened to those complaints?’
She went on: ‘I think the editor of the programme, Martin Frizell, has some questions to answer himself and I’m afraid so does Holly Willoughby.
‘How did that young boy, so young, get a job at ITV? What are the processes that were involved? What was the safeguarding in place for someone that was so young at that age? What contact was first made? Who contacted her?’
Her comments come after it emerged that the co-worker Phil had the affair with – who he has not named publicly out of respect for his privacy – was allegedly 15 years of age when they first met.
It’s said that Phil was called on by his future colleague’s relatives to give a talk at his school during the boy’s teenage years.
According to MailOnline, their affair began shortly after while Phil was in his early 50s and married to Stephanie Lowe.
Meanwhile, ex co-host Holly – who presented with Phil on This Morning for 13 years – recently broke her silence on the matter amid calls for her to also quit the show.
Holly is currently on an early half-term break and is confirmed to be returning to the sofa on June 5.
Taking to her Instagram Story this weekend, she expressed her ‘hurt’ after supposedly quizzing Phil on his affair in the past, which he denied.
She said, in full: ‘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.’
Phillip Schofield statement in full
‘I am making this statement via the Daily Mail to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.
‘The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
‘Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
‘When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody “forced” me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me. In an effort to protect my ex-colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
‘But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.
‘I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife.
‘I have therefore decided to step down from the British Soap Awards, my last public commitment, and am resigning from ITV with immediate effect expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.
‘I will reflect on my very bad judgment in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it. To protect his privacy, I am not naming this individual and my deepest wish is that both he and his family can now move on with their lives free from further intrusion, and that this statement will enable them to do so.
‘I ask the media now to respect their privacy. They have done nothing wrong, and I ask that their privacy should be respected.’
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