Phillip Schofield has reportedly addressed claims he will join TalkTV following his exit from ITV.
Last month, the former Dancing On Ice presenter, 61, announced he would leave the broadcaster ‘with immediate effect’ after admitting to an affair with a runner on This Morning.
He was also dropped by his agents of 35 years YMU and from The Prince’s Trust, where he was an ambassador, and lost sponsorship deals.
After confessing to the ‘unwise but not illegal’ relationship, Phillip gave a series of emotional interviews in which he said he ‘wouldn’t still be here’ without his daughters, Molly and Ruby, and stated he didn’t believe he would work in TV again.
‘I’ve lost everything. It’s all gone,’ he told The Sun frankly.
‘Telly was my safe space, the one thing I loved. Now I don’t know if I will ever work on telly again.’
It was later claimed by PR expert Andy Barr Phillip could revive his on-screen career on TalkTV, which hired Piers Morgan following his departure from Good Morning Britain.
He told the Daily Star: ‘TalkTV could be the career rebuilding platform that Schofield needs right now.
‘If the current media spotlight reveals no new allegations then this is entirely recoverable for him and TalkTV could be the perfect place for him to start again in a high profile media environment.’
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.’
However, according to the Daily Mirror, Phillip’s lawyer has shut down claims he could be joining TalkTV.
Asked whether the former The Cube presenter could return to our screens with a show on the broadcaster, they said: ‘Absolutely not as far as I know.’
In the wake of the affair being made public, many stars have defended Phillip, who said the coverage of the affair was ‘homophobic.’
Phillip told The Sun that he and his former lover had met when the man was 15 and he was ‘maybe’ in his mid-50s, but added that the affair began after the man started working at ITV and was aged over 18 and had been ‘consensual’.
He said: ‘So yeah, there’s a difference. It’s accepted by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s not accepted if it’s in the gay world.’
Phillip was referring to the Titanic actor’s romances with young women, which typically end when they reach 25.
He continued: ‘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.
‘People are attracted to, or have relationships — wise or unwise — with people of different ages. Yes, I see what it looks like from the outside world. I just want to apologise to everyone.’
Stars, including Rupert Everett, Sarah Ferguson and Jeremy Clarkson, agreed with Phillip that the coverage was ‘homophobic.’
The former Top Gear presenter wrote in The Sunday Times that he had never seen a ‘witch hunt like it.’
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Phillip’s lawyer for comment.
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